Tanks already are wearing the same gear stats with no variation because there is no variation. Essentially KeyboardNinja posts his ideal stat distribution and nearly everyone follows it cause he is a comp programmer and knows how mmo mechanics work and how to get the most mitigation out of your stat budget. Might as well make it easier by removing fluff stats from the gear.

All we need is shield/absorb to be merged into one stat and I am happy.

Since DPS are having crit/surge merged into one stat, how about merging shield/absorb for tanks. The reason I would like this idea is because shield/absorb are useless on there own, they need there coefficient stat to be of any use. All the absorb in the world is useless if you have poor shield and vice versa. It would also make gearing a tank much easier come 4.0. I know some people won't like the idea of every tank having the exact same stats on their gear, yet that is exactly how the game is now anyways. Thoughts?

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Didn't saber throw used to have the "deals high threat" attribute on it before 2.0? I could swear it was one of the higher threat abilities. As a tank juggernaught I am tired of how much harder it is for me to not just keep aggro in a pve environment, but having ZERO ranged threat abilites just sucks. The worst thing that can happen to a jugger tank is that u get punted back by mobbs (those 30m punts are pathetic they really are as they often contain a slow as well) and u might as well forget it. The only way juggers can aoe tank in swtor is aoe taunt + sabre reflect. We have no other ranged threat abilites period. This needs to change we need some more mid - long range abilities or failing that cc immunity after we leap (unshakeable from vengeance tree would work nice here). The old 50 hm fps are a perfect example of Leap in *BOOM* immediatly knocked back/stunned/slowed/rooted. Both saber throw and force charge need to lose there distance requirement its just completly unneccesary.

What if concealment operatives had a proc in there tree to reset the cd on hidden strike and make it useable outside of stealth? It would prob be something like shiv, lacerate and bacstab had a 10-25% chance to add this proc. I have recently jumped back into my concealment operative and there dps is okay, but nowhere near as epic as it used to be. I am also seeing parsers of around 2-400 pts lower dps for concealment vs lethality.

Yeah this guy was just a dooche. He has, what I like to call, LWS or Little Willy Syndrome. Give a dude with a small Willy a little bit of power, and it goes to his head.

And I shudder to think that your mentality of "switch to soresu and equip a shield generator in dps spec so u take less damage" will do if anyone is STUPID enough to take your advice. Your previous statements where so fkn stupid they FLOORED me. Do us a favour mate, uninstall the game, quit your sub and ****. I have NEVER heard such a load of hogwash in nearly 10years of MMO play.

^Is this guy for real? The stupidity of your comment has just FLOORED me. Concealment is NOT a melee spec? This is like saying Advanced Prototype Powertechs are "not melee". All the operatives hard hitting abilities are up close. I suppose you are one of "those" operatives that sits in cover and spams snipe then i take it?

It may have to do with the fact that tanking on a juggernaught/guardian early on is an absolute PAIN IN THE *** due to our lack of aoe threat generating abilities apart from smash for nearly 30+ lvls. There single target threat is aweful untill u get backhand. The long cd's on our taunts dont help matters much either (especially the aoe taunt). I have leveled all three tanks to 55 in tank spec and can say that juggers are the hardest tanks to tank on, though they are much better now then they where at launch. My second toon was a jugger tank (pre 1.4 patch where the 200% threat boost was added) and it was not an enjoyable experience. Once i got sweeping slash life got better, but it was still relatively easy for dps to pull add packs off me especially when the idiots open with aoe abilities like Death From Above/Death Field/Orbital Strike etc.

Well aren't you special?

This! The look of MOST of the gear in this game is appalling, personally reckon BiowEAr need to fire their art team and start fresh. Anyone who doesn't believe me, just look at the sorcerer endgame pve/pvp armor! Disgusting..... and the Warrior gear is not much better. BiowEAr then has the gall to finally put some DECENT looking gear in the game but we have to now PAY for it. We have to PAY to look slightly decent in an mmo? Not cool . Apart from that I love the game =P

Nearly all the enhancements in the new 78 tanking gear are useless too. Waaaay to endurance heavy, and bugger all absorption. NONE of them have defense, yet plenty of alacrity and accuracy *sigh*. You will be better with the 72 crafted enhancements if u can afford to buy them off the gtn or hopefully get lucky with a "free with mats" crafter.

This, so much this. What allot of people do not understand however is that 10points into ANY main stat (Str, will, cunning, aim) will increase your base damage by 1 point. So if u pick up all +40 main stat datacrons its like another 10-20 damage or something. In a nutshell? Not worth the effort, unless u want the codex entries i suppose.

Having played all three tanks through endgame content i can give u a bit of advice: 1. Powertechs/Vanguards are probably the most simple of the three tanks when it comes from playstyle/rotation and gearing. They have the highest base mitigations compared to the other 2 tanks with very solid absorption via heat screen, which is pretty much a constant buff. Also have high shield and decent defence via traiting and set bonus . Plus they are a ranged/melee hybrid perfectly able of keeping threat at any range. They also have an aoe sludge puddle (thats what i like to call it anyhow) that is a 30% accuracy and 70% movement speed debuff, nothing super major but you will be surprised how usefull it is to keep mob packs under controll. 2. Assassins/Shadows are definatly the worst in terms of mitigations due to there low armor rating and there overreliance on shield/absorb. While they have self heals and a few cds there the only tanks i have played that can drop dead before u realise *** is hapening, especially in NIM content. An assasins armor rating is a solid 10-12% lower than an equivalently geared pt/juggernaught. However they do have a stealth cc, outstanding aoe threat gen and hands down the best dps of all the tanks, as well as a combat drop/stealth to res downded party members when they are the offtank in a raid to allow the heals to keep those alive, well, alive. 3, Juggernaughts/Guardians are hands down the most resilient of the 3 tanks due to there defensive cds. While a powertech will have better base mitigations, Juggernaughts are more able to adjust on the fly to a situation as they will always have a defensive cd to pop when something happens in a raid. There only weakness is there opening threat is lower than the other 2 tanks and there aoe threat can feel absolutely pathetic at times, also they need to be in melee range to deal threat so if u have a dps/healer on your team that is stupidly fond of there aoe knockbacks u will be tearing your hair out when stuff gets knocked out of your melee range, and you promtly loose aggro. When it comes to the leveling experience i had the easiest time with my shadow followed by my powertech. However you will feel completly useless as a juggernaught tank early on when running fps/heroics as there threat gen is a serious issue untill the 30's as apart from sweep, you have no other aoe, which has a solid cd. You are a single target tank only till the late 30's. In terms of dps shadows reign supreme followed by juggernaughts then powertechs. I had the feeling of **** is it DEAD yet on my pt, took a while for stuff to die. May just be my playstyle though. Now onto the resources of the three tanks. 1. Powertechs/Vanguards use heat/ammo. This mechanic is a pain in the butt to get a handle of, and when the sh*t hits the fan in an ops/fp you can feel the restrictions of this resource pool especially when trying to keep aoe threat. 2.Assassins/Shadows use force which is simple to manage as it refills at a consistant rate and is allmost impossible to run out of, plus u get extra regen bonus in your traits. 3. Juggernaughts/Guardians use rage/focus. This is by far the simplest resource to build as simply being attacked in soresu form generates the resource, as well as multiple abilities that also deal solid threat. Can be a pain if your not being attacked but is easilly built up. Juggernaughts folow the mentality of build and burn with there resource whereas the other 2 tanks follow the use and conserve mentality, constantly keeping an eye on the lvl of your resource so that it doesnt get too low as the lower it is the slower it regens (technically its Higher for heat, as more heat = less heat dissipation - its complicated =P) Juggernaughts have no such problems. I hope I have been able to help you out with a choice. Also if u need any help with gearing there is an excellent post by keyboardninja on the tanking forums with numbers regarding def/shield/absorb for each of the three tanks.