Not new to the game but played almost exclusively DPS and never tanked before.

 

Between Juggs and Assassins, which tank spec is easier for a person to pick up the skills and role understanding of a tank?

 

Also, which class as a tank is more engaging to play with more varied attacks available from a solo PVE perspective? I would get bored grinding through levels with only one or two attacks, having to rely on a companion to kill.

 

Again, I've played both classes quite a bit, but, with the exception of two aborted attempts, always DPS.

 

Thanks!

Fun factor-wise, probably Juggernaut. I woldn't say either is hard to pick up, but Jugg gets more varied rotations (at least in my opinion).

 

Sin tanks are mindnumbingly boring at low levels, as far as rotations are concerned, and don't get much better at higher levels. You focus more on the use of your defensive skills as a Sin tank, because your passive defenses, quite frankly, aren't very good.

 

As far as soloing as a tank goes, Sin is easier to solo harder pve content with (thanks to Mindmaze and selfhealing), while Jugg feels more fun/impactful (Smash, talented for armour debuff+Crushing Blow looks just badarse), and the character looks like they're actually fighting as opposite to standing and casting stuff in melee range.

Edited July 21, 2013 by Helig

AS far as my recommendations go, Shadow/sin in first, vanguard/powertech in second, and guardian/juggernaut in third. Shadow/sin is the earliest to get aoe agro control, with force breach/discharge building extra threat, plus tank stance. Vanguard/powertech is ins econd because while they don't get a lot of high threat generating aoes, they get a lot of aoe attacks that do some good damage so for me, for aoe agro control, they rank second, with guardians/jugs in third. All have great single target agro control. powertech and juggernaut are almost even for survivability without the use of defensive skills, however, guardian/jug wins, because if you desire, you can make guard/jug a lot more endurance heavy than you can vanguard/powertech, if you wish, but because of their high damage reduction, they don't need to be as endurance heavy as shadow/sin. As far as soloing, shadow/sin has it faster with stealth and force speed, but it all depends on how good you tank and how good your healer companion is geared as far as easiness goes. As far as healer companions go, they're all the same skill wise with some slight diffence in animation/skill names etc, but some you pick up earlier than others. In order of when you get healer companion, by planetary order (1,2,3, etc) it goes powertech, jugg/vanguard (tied), shadow, guardian, assassin.

In solo PVE, stealth classes are the king. If you're frustrated with fighting your way past mobs, you can just stealth and rocket boost through them all without any fights. It's wonderful.

Thanks for the replies. That the jugg doesn't have stealth is one reason I am leaning towards it. I find myself getting lazy with stealth.

 

How about keeping aggro, at least for single target, since it was noted that the assassin does area aoe better? Is it easier with one versus another?

 

Looking at the skill tree, seems like jugg is a little more offensively stanced?

Thanks for the replies. That the jugg doesn't have stealth is one reason I am leaning towards it. I find myself getting lazy with stealth.

 

How about keeping aggro, at least for single target, since it was noted that the assassin does area aoe better? Is it easier with one versus another?

 

Looking at the skill tree, seems like jugg is a little more offensively stanced?

Post-2.0, Juggernaut holds aggro just fine, and the rotation/priority system has been simplified, as well. The only (main) limitation of the Juggernaut combat system is the range. 90% of your moves are either melee, or PBAoE. Most of the skills that have range further than 4 meters have 30, or 60-second cooldowns. 10-meter Vicious is an execute, aside that, only Scream. Jugg, for multitarget aggro, has to use Reflect, AoE taunt, or stand in the middle of the pack in question.

 

Powertechs and Sins feel more "liberal" in their range flexibility.

 

However, Saber Reflect is great. Not a game-making/game-breaking skill, but it does plug the psychological gap in Juggernaut offensive. Excellent for initial aggro on scattered ranged packs. AoE aggro is probably still worse than the other tanks - not because of AoE threat per second potential, but rather because of range inflexibility. Sin has PBAoE and 10-meter AoEs available, PT has 30-meter and PBAoEs/cone AoE and multitarget damage/DoT procs on melee and 30-meter attacks.

Edited July 23, 2013 by Helig

If it's your very first tank I'd recommend either Juggernaut or Powertech. And since you're already experienced as DPS, an extra vote to Juggernaut. Assassin can be a big pain early on due to their low armour (also an issue in end-game but for that just look at all the sadness on the Assassin and Shadow forums, any update can change it though and it's being looked into.) My reasoning:

 

Juggernaut:

Threat, especially ranged threat, can be quite a challange until level 51, where you get saber reflect and everything is joke. Single target threat is no issue what-so-ever.

Survivability on the other hand is one of the easiest, few things to maintain but they're part of a set rotation and cooldowns are very much 'oh ****' cooldowns rather than preëmptive.

Rotation: You have a relatively easy '12' second rotation. (Using Smash, Crushing Blow, Sundering Assault, Force Scream on recharge) and the rest are 4 cooldowns of 'fillers' and retaliation whenever it procs. Once you got it, it's extremely easy and repetitive, but very effective.

 

Assassin:

Threat: Likely easiest and possibly highest threat in game. Their AoE's both create high amount of threat on top of having a 10m range, which can be very helpful. The reason they look so easy to play... how-ever;

Survivability: Whilst leveling you'll be quite squishy, end-game you rely almost completely on using your cooldowns properly and preëmptive, aswell as maintaining certain buffs and refreshing them at the last second. (Dark Ward.) As well as relying a lot on defensive stats, which are RNG, making them quite unpreditable. Loads of selfhealing so at most bosses they're quite alright, but extra squishy on trash. The last 2 things are just an Assassin thing, needing proper use of your cooldowns is why I'd not recommend them as your first tank.

Rotation: Relatively easy rotation. Very basic: Keep up Wither and Discharge debuff. Use shock and wither on recharge and force lightning at 3 stacks of harnessed darkness. Rest you fill with skills that make your shock recharge instantly. But due to being proc dependant it can be a bit of a pain to get used to.

 

Powertech:

Threat: very decent, loads of AoE but you're a bit more in your 10m range due to PbAoE skills, you have a pull and a leap how-ever making it quite easy nonetheless. At 51 you get your shoulder cannon, making your initial threat quite impressive.

Survivability: Easiest survivability and quite decent aswell. All you really have to watch is that you use flame burst or flame sweep once every 10 seconds and Heat Blast on cooldown and you won't die. Only 1 defensive cooldown, this can be a good and bad thing.

Rotation: If you get a decent opener it's basicly ends up in auto attack until something lights up and flame sweep/burst whenever the energy allows it. Can be very nice if you pick up gaming, but a bit boring. You'll have more than enough experience at remembering rotations as DPS, so ye. Energy (well Heat) management is a royal pain in the *** in the beginning, but gets better when you get 2x free flame sweep after your leap and it only keeps getting easier.

 

I didn't say which tank would be the easiest for solo-play. Shouldn't be your aim anyway. But a Jug is quite fortunate with ranged DPS companion first and a healer second, same kind of gear aswell. Assassin gets a tank first, boo, but ranged DPS second, so that's nice. Powertech bit the same as Jug, but the other way around. I love all 5 (all but vanguard) of my tanks, currently my juggernaut is my healers favourite tank, Assassin is my favourite play-style-wise but currently quite unreliable and Powertech can be great fun, but gets boring quite easily for me.