How do I go about getting geared for EC HM as a Shadow Tank? I have probably an average of Rakata gear, having some Columi, Rakata, and Black Hole gear in roughly equal proportions. I'm good with my spec, so that should be a non-issue. I'm still learning the op, but that'll come with study and practice. I'm just a bit nervous about my gear and want to improve it. I've cleared HM KP and EV already, as well as SM EC and TfB.

Please give me some guidance on how to improve my gear because I have some BH comms, but when I look at the items, even when upgrading from Columi, the actual bonuses seem pretty underwhelming. What stats should I be aiming for?

What stats should I be aiming for?

The very first thing you should do is make sure you're getting the 4 pc set bonus. The set bonuses are friggin' *amazing* for tanks, and any tank without them is crippling themselves in doing so.

The second thing you should do is look at all of your enhancements, ear, and implants. Get rid of anything that had accuracy on it and replace it with stuff that has both shield and absorb on it, even if it's lower tier (all of the Rakata tank gear has acc enhances; replace those with the enhs from the Columi gear since it's got shield/abs). The Rakata ear is terrible, but the implants are decent (BH for both ear and implant are safe and well itemized, so if you've got those, you're golden).

Third, if you haven't already, augment your gear: as a Shadow, you should be using Defense and Absorb augments (you want to keep your Def and Abs ratings roughly equal); you'll get all of the Endurance and Shield rating you need from your gear tangentially so there's no point wasting itemization on it that could be put to use getting more defense or absorb (which are in comparatively shorter supply).

Lastly, make sure you get a heal proc relic for one of your relic slots; the campaign one costs 200 daily comms and the DG one costs 300. For your second relic slot, you can go with either the absorb proc relic (as I do), a passive PvP Defense relic, or one of the use relics (I recommend the Campaign shield/abs relic if you're going to use one because it's the best one with a 30 sec duration).

Once you've taken care of all or most of that, you'll be set for it.

Kitru, why do you use the heal relic?

The consistent ~22 hp/sec it provides more comparative survivability than what any other relic would provide otherwise (since it applies to all attack types, not just M/R). It probably helps that I like having power on my relics and, of all of the DG tier relics, it's the only one for Shadow tanks that has it.

Thanks for the brief overview. So there aren't any magic numbers to be looking for in DR, Defense, Shield, or Absorb I should be striving for?

30/65/60 is the generic answer to "what should my def/shield/abs chance be" but tweaking on that level isn't necessary until you're actually in DG/Camp gear. As it stands, it's more important to cover the things I mentioned before.

30/65/60 is the generic answer to "what should my def/shield/abs chance be" but tweaking on that level isn't necessary until you're actually in DG/Camp gear. As it stands, it's more important to cover the things I mentioned before.

The 65% shield, is that including the assumed 20% from kinetic ward?

The 65% shield, is that including the assumed 20% from kinetic ward?

Yes. In general, any numbers as such are provided assuming any buffs you can have on a functionally passive basis (so it includes the 20% from KW, but similar numbers for other classes don't include the +3% defense for Guardian Riposte or 8% absorb for VG shield screen because those can't be generated outside of having a target to beat on).

Yes. In general, any numbers as such are provided assuming any buffs you can have on a functionally passive basis (so it includes the 20% from KW, but similar numbers for other classes don't include the +3% defense for Guardian Riposte or 8% absorb for VG shield screen because those can't be generated outside of having a target to beat on).

I advise to stick on «30/45/60» definition as a less confusing for most readers.

Just because you refer 30/../60 as direct values from character sheet. And ../65/.. are based on «imaginary» value..

or at least the reference should be posted as 30 / 45(65) / 60

I saw you say you like to have power on relics. I am looking at the difference between the black hole gloves (better Willpower) and Black Hole headgear (better Endurance). I'm thinking that the Endurance would be better for a tank, but I wanted to be sure before I blow all of my commendations on the wrong mods/enhancements.

On the other hand, the gloves are 10 comms apiece cheaper, which is pretty significant if you are buying 6 of them.

I'm thinking that the Endurance would be better for a tank, but I wanted to be sure before I blow all of my commendations on the wrong mods/enhancements.

I'm often considered to be one of the crazier tanks to talk to about Endurance because I explicitly minimize my Endurance: I'm in full 63 gear and I use Resolve Hilt and Armoring (lots of Willpower and very little Endurance), unlettered 27 mods (which have lots of WP and mitigation but very little Endurance), and Bastion enhancements (high Shield rating instead of high Endurance). The only "high Endurance" item I have my absorb proc relic, and that's because it doesn't come in any other flavor (I do use the Fort stim, but that's only because it comes with Defense rating; the Endurance is just a rider).

That said, I've never had *anyone* tell me that I'm hard to heal and I've had *lots* of people tell me that they love running with me because I *never* lose threat so the DPS can rip into their targets right from the get go. I've never seen the use in having a lot of Endurance, and I prefer not to have it on any of my 3 tanks.

Now, to answer your question, I *always* prioritize mitigation (Defense/Shield/Absorb) over Willpower over Endurance, but I also look explicitly at the armoring/mod/enh when getting a piece of gear rather than the totaled values. Unless you're buying "fresh" gear with nothing usable to upgrade, I would just buy BH gear for the mods/enhs that you want.

Then that would be the gloves. They give the biggest bang for the buck. I was just considering Endurance because that makes the TK ticks heal more, albeit slightly.

The comparative increases to your self healing from Endurance stacking only begin to even approach the value of mitigation when you're in the absolute best gear around and, even then, they're a marginal improvement at best. Personally, I prefer to give my DPS the leeway to beat on targets harder and faster rather than provide myself with a smidge more hp that will, in all likelihood, be completely redundant and a smidge more hp/sec that is pretty much guaranteed to be eaten by overhealing (my healers prefer to keep me topped off rather than the ~90% that KeyboardNinja's healers do).

Resolve over force wielder? That's definitely weird lol.

It's weird, but it works. I require less healing than any other tank I've ever run with (thanks to massive mitigation stacking, the marginal decrease in self healing is negligible), and not even the worst threat offenders can pull off of me (Assault VGs, Sentinels, etc.). It's gotten to the point where I don't even bother with Guard or taunt unless there is an explicit taunt swap required; my threat is just *that* massive.

It's weird, but it works. I require less healing than any other tank I've ever run with (thanks to massive mitigation stacking, the marginal decrease in self healing is negligible), and not even the worst threat offenders can pull off of me (Assault VGs, Sentinels, etc.). It's gotten to the point where I don't even bother with Guard or taunt unless there is an explicit taunt swap required; my threat is just *that* massive.

Could you please link your mrrobot armory?

Could you please link your mrrobot armory?

You can just do a search for Kitru, which is probably the easiest way to find it. If that's too hard...

Okay... so I just did some gearing up, wiping out every instance of Accuracy that I could. I remodded all of my equipment and I now have x4 set bonus, mostly 61 rated items, besides a few 56 mods. All but 2 slots are augmented with Defense or Absorb.

Ending stats are ~40.25 DR, 27.31 Defense, 43.84 Shielding, 53.67 Absorb. Still have 1 enhancement with accuracy on it, but I figure one slot is forgivable.

You can just do a search for Kitru, which is probably the easiest way to find it. If that's too hard...

Something is not right with that profile.

Maybe you havent updated it for a long time? The askmrrobot have some glitches when new (1.4-1.5) patch data was compiled... You should recheck all the items.. Maybe your belt/sash are not accounted...

Health 24657.3

Armor Rating 4873.9

Damage Reduction 35.10%

Defense Chance 26.43%

Shield Chance 46.56%

Shield Absorption 58.30%

You should recheck all the items.. Maybe your belt/sash are not accounted...

I've rechecked em all, but I've got higher Defense and armor rating in game than what it says there. I'm pretty sure the skill tree just doesn't parse certain talents correctly amongst other things. For example, only 2% Defense from skills/buffs is factored in, but I should be getting 6%; I'm pretty sure some stuff just isn't getting included whatsoever (DBSD definitely, the adaptive belt and bracers I'm using apparently don't contribute their armor rating because it doesn't recognize them as *having* armor rating; it also doesn't recognize that Shadowsight provide 2% resistance chance, not just 2% m/r defense chance). It doesn't really bother me though because I don't really need to check out AMR to see my stats; I can just go in game for that. If someone wants to do calcs on my survivability, all they need to do is switch out the adaptive belt/bracer for a static armor type while keeping the same mods and it works just fine. If people want to see my gear, on the other hand, it's all right there.

It's weird, but it works. I require less healing than any other tank I've ever run with (thanks to massive mitigation stacking, the marginal decrease in self healing is negligible), and not even the worst threat offenders can pull off of me (Assault VGs, Sentinels, etc.). It's gotten to the point where I don't even bother with Guard or taunt unless there is an explicit taunt swap required; my threat is just *that* massive.

I just wanted to say that as an AssSpec VG, I'm able to blow everything - Battle Focus + DG Boundless Ages Relic, though I haven't used an Adrenal in conjunction yet with Kitru - and blow through my initial burn phase, and continue my normal priority rotation in a fight without pulling once. I can' say that about any other tank I've really ran with. It may not be "necessary", but getting to start on a boss immediately instead of having to throttle at the beginning is a big plus.

Kitru, with that gear build, what is the toughest content you've run? Have you run 16 player Nightmare mode EC?

Just curious because my guild is running NiM EC 16 and I am tempted to try out something more along the lines of crazy threat generation.

Kitru, with that gear build, what is the toughest content you've run? Have you run 16 player Nightmare mode EC?

I don't do 16 man (I had a guild that did it back in ye olden days of 1.1 but I just didn't enjoy the hassle of running with that many people). If I did, I would need a bit more hp (switch out some of the Resolve Armorings for Force Wielder to get to ~27k with Stim) to give healers the larger window of reaction time during high burst phases, which is what I recommend for it.

Thanks, the 27k hp mark is what I was kind of aiming for while trying to get max threat gen and max mitigation.

this is what I'm aiming for, (mainly just in terms of stats) but it's only a 1st draft, I think it will be drastically different in terms of augments / relics / crystals / and a couple of armorings when I'm done.