SWTOR Tank School: Tank Gear

Buckle up, Padawans, this is a big one . . . and it even has HOMEWORK!

Chapter 5: Tank Gear

Let me just start by breaking the bad news to you:

Gearing up Tanks properly is hard . . . hard, as in BioWare-seems-to-want-to-encourage-the-creation-of-a-gigantic-mob-of-bad-Tanks-who-are-geared-the-wrong-way hard.

Why exactly is gearing up tanks so hard?

There are several reasons.
1)Tank gear and DPS gear are completely different. If you have a notion that you'd like to be able to respec your Guardian/Vanguard/Shadow for DPS sometimes, then you're going to need to build and carry two complete sets of gear--by which I mean all 15 items. DPS/Healer characters only have to change about half of their gear, and can even perform reasonably well with no changes at all. Not so for Tanks.  (Using DPS gear is generally called being a "Skank Tank" and that's a whole other subject.)

2) For DPS and Healers, gearing is a fairly simple min-max exercise. Gearing Tanks involves balancing your three main damage mitigation stats (Defense, Shield, Absorb) to optimal values, but with NO guidance whatsoever on what that optimal balance is.

3) What little in-game guidance there is steers you in the direction of just maximizing Endurance.

THIS IS THE WRONG APPROACH, as you'll learn below.

Yet because of this little bit of guidance, there are players who will argue with you bitterly on this point.

On the plus side, gear has been greatly simplified in the 7.x era (although one could argue that it's been over-simplified) so that, while you do have fewer choices to make, you also have fewer ways to **** it up.  (And ironically, you'll be maximizing Endurance along the way.)

Acquiring and building a well-balanced, optimized set of Tank gear without assistance is a difficult tank (upgraded from "nearly impossible" in previous versions of the game).

Now for the good news: Your assistance has arrived.

So how DO I gear up a Tank?

We'll start with the overall strategy, then dig into details, and at the end we'll discuss the reasons why.  Note that we are starting off by aiming for maximum damage mitigation.

Here's the strategy: (with minor apologies to Isaac Azimov)
1) The First Law of Tank Gearing is to maximize your mitigation stats: Shield, Absorb, and (to a lesser extent) Defense.

This means gravitating to the Best-In-Slot ("BiS") items with the highest rating, and within a given rating, the best quality option (Purple vs. Blue vs. Green).  When working with moddable gear, this means using Enhancements that have the best mix of stats ("Bulwark" and "Bastion") and using Mods that DO NOT have a letter following the name (e.g. use Advanced Robust Mod 34 instead of Advanced Robust Mod 34B)

This also means purging yourself of any unnecessary stats that are DPS-related, including Crit, Surge, Power . . . Alacrity, . . . AND ACCURACY. Every point you have of those stats on your main gear is a point of Defense/Shield/Absorb that you COULD have instead.

Finally, this means selecting Best-in-Slot items for Relics, Earpieces, and Implants. (That part is easy: we can craft up the Relics and Implants.)


<*>The Second Law of Tank Gearing is to maximize your damage output, so long as doing so does not violate the First Law.

"Wait, didn't you just get done saying NOT to carry DPS-related stats???" Yes, I did. But there is still room for doing a whole host of other things that don't negatively impact your Mitigation stats.

Remember: in addition to being able to take damage, you need to be able to generate Threat.

<*>The Third Law of Tank Gearing is to balance your three mitigation stats to the optimal mix for your particular character class.

Think about it: If you (theoretically) have a 100% Absorb level but a 0% Shield chance, all that Absorb is worthless. Similarly, a 100% Shield chance to Absorb 0% of the damage is just as bad. The BEST mix is somewhere in the middle.

Where Defense is concerned, a high chance of Defense is good for all types of Tanks. But there are many types of special attacks that always hit, and simply bypass your ability to avoid the damage with a high Defense rating. But the damage from those same attacks CAN be reduced with your Shield and Absorb.

So in reality, all three Tank classes must carry all three mitigation stats (but in different proportions).

What about while I'm levelling up?

While levelling up a Tank, really the only thing you can do is try to carry the best armor rating you can. The D/S/A mitigation stats don't even appear until Level 30-ish and the properly-mixed gear doesn't really appear until Level 50. THAT gear won't last long because you'll be quickly replacing it at Level 55 anyway. So do the best you can while levelling. Once you hit 55, it's time to get serious. (But until then, you don't really need to worry about it.)

How do I actually DO all of this?

We'll start with the First Law. Follow these basic guidelines to maximize your mitigation:

<*> Use the best gear you can get. Always try to improve your Defense/Shield/Absorb to higher than what they currently are. DEFINITELY try to pick up a full set of Set-Bonus items from Operations: Unassembled Arkanian/Underworld/Dread Forged pieces of 4 out of the 5 main armor items (Head, Chest, Hands, Legs, Feet). All of your Enhancements should eventually be a mix of Bastion and Bulwark Enhancements.
Opinion: Your first Ultimate Comms purchase should probably be a Chestpiece. Your second should probably be a Shield. From there, look at Implants and Earpieces.
<*> Put Augment Slots (using Augmentation Kit MK-9) on all your orange/purple gear that you expect to keep using in the long run. (Don't augment things like relics/ears/implants until you have one that you know you won't be replacing any time soon.) Adding those slots is expensive, so be smart about it. (Putting augment slots in 14 items, at 36,000 credits each, costs over a half-a-million credits total (MORE if you're not a subscriber)--and that's AFTER you've acquired the Slot Kits. )
<*> Ask one of the guild crafters (nicely) to make a big bunch of Blue augments for you.

<*> Start acquiring Thermal Regulators (either by using the Slicing Skill or by purchasing them as funds allow). When you get 4 of them, ask one of the guild crafters to make the Purple versions of the same Augments you are using. (It will take *4* Thermals to make one Purple Augment.)
<*> Get the Best-In-Slot relics. For ALL TANK CLASSES, they are the Relic of Fortunate Redoubt and the Relic of Reactive Warding. If you have a Relic of Shield Amplification, keep using it until you are able to replace it with Reactive Warding. More discussion of this later.
<*> Put a high-priority on replacing items that contain Crit, Surge, Alacrity, Accuracy, and Power (not counting Augments, they will have Power and that's okay) with items that have Defense, Shield, and Absorb instead. When in doubt and faced with a choice, use the table above as a guide. This can happen in Enhancements, Implants, and Earpieces.
<*> Whenever possible, try to replace items items that have high-Endurance and low-D/S/A with ones that have higher D/S/A at the expense of lowering Endurance.

Next is the Second Law. Follow these basic guidelines to maximize your threat:

<*> Get the highest-rated hilt/barrel for your Mainhand weapon that you can.
<*> Get the highest-rated Armoring for your Shield (Offhand) that you can.
Both of these things will increase your Force Power or Tech Power, increasing your damage and threat.
<*> Augment all 14 gear items as soon as you can. Purple ones are a little better than the Blue ones of course, but the Blue ones are WAY better than none at all. Augments that have Mitigation stats have Power as the secondary stat, which is a win-win. DO NOT use Fortitude Augments.
<*> Replace the B-Mods as quickly as you can with the corresponding Unlettered Mods. This will give you a small boost in both Mitigation and Main stat (Aim, Strength, Willpower) at the expense of a little Endurance, and the tradeoff is a net gain for you.
<*> Optional: Switch out non-Set-Bonus armorings and mainhand hilt/barrel for the DPS version that has more Main stat than Endurance (e.g. Resolve instead of Force Wielder / Might instead of Guardian / Reflex instead of Commando). Again, you can trade off a small amount of Endurance for a higher Main stat this way.
<*> Advanced: You can also trade out the "Indestructible" Crystals in your Mainhand and/or Shield with "Hawkeye" versions instead. This is a direct tradeoff of Endurance for Power.
Opinion: Don't do this unless you are very well geared and you find that your need for Threat generation is more dire than your need for survivability. If changing out a crystal in this way leaves you below 38K HP, you probably should NOT do this.

Finally, there's the Third Law. Follow these basic guidelines to optimize your Mitigation:

<*> As you approach full 168/180-rated gear, start swapping your mods, enhancements and augments so that your mix of the three Mitigation stats is as optimal as possible. This does mean that you'll need to acquire a bit of "extra" gear in order to be able to make the changes.


So . . . what IS the optimal balance of Defense/Shield/Absorb?

The completely truthful answer (and also completely useless) is: It depends.

It depends on your Tank class. It depends on your overall gear level. There's a lot of Math involved.

Fortunately, two very good Mathematicians who play the game have been studying the topic, and have worked out a series of very complex calculations for finding the best possible mix of stats. On the SWTOR forums, they are known as KeyboardNinja ("KBN") and Dipstik. Their findings are remarkably similar, even though they developed their work independently of each other.

The results of KeyboardNinja's work is found in <url=http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=616779>this thread on the SWTOR.com forums. You'll see that he has produced a series of tables. The information in these tables is very useful, but a little hard to use.

Fortunately, a very good Programmer (and moderately-good Mathematician) who plays the game has written a program that makes using these tables a snap. (Full disclosure: This very good Programmer is ME.)

You can find this tool <url=/forum/m/19684216/viewthread/10449453-tank-stat-balancing-tool-v5>in another thread in this same Forum. Go find it and download it.

This program is your guide to zeroing in on the optimal balance for your Tank class and overall gear level, doing all the math for you. Just put in your current values, and the program will show you where you ought to be for that gear level.

Anywhere that your current value is significantly LOWER than the ideal, that's the stat you want to improve. Anywhere that your current value is significantly HIGHER than the ideal, that's the stat that it's safe to sacrifice a bit in order to get the other one(s) up higher.

Note that Shield is going to be a bit of an anomaly. It's very common for you to be over-valued on Shield and undervalued on Defense & Absorb, simply because the gear that has Shield in it is hard to change. This is okay. When that happens, just try to balance your Defense & Absorb so they are both undervalued by about the same amount.

As your gear gets better, keep updating the values in the tool (it saves your numbers when you exit) to see where the optimal values drift to.

Also, don't stress over dialing it in EXACTLY. So long as you can get within 25 points or so of each optimal value, you're good-to-go.


I'm hearing a lot of GET THIS and GET THAT. Where and how do I get this stuff?

A lot of the items you'll want can be crafted within the guild, but you don't necessarily need to rely on that. More than anything, you'll want to RUN OPERATIONS, first in Story Mode, and then . . . <url=/hardmode>if you think you're ready . . . in Hard Mode.

Here are some of the specifics:

<*> Set Bonus Armorings: (Unassembled Arkanian/Underworld items)
These come from TfB and S&V. Each of the 12 types of items (remember: 2 Implants and 2 Relics for all 14) are dropped by a different Boss across the two Ops. Story Mode drops Arkanian items, and Hard Mode drops Underworld items. Dread Fortress and Dread Palace also can drop all 12 items from their 10 bosses. In this case, Story Mode drops Arkanian with some random Underworld items, and Hard Mode drops Dread Forged items.

In all cases, getting a full 4-Part Set Bonus with lower-rated armorings offers more overall protection than no Set Bonus with higher-rated armorings.

<*> Mainhand: Run the one-time story quests for TfB and S&V, which will give you some expensive crafting mats, and have one of the Guild crafters make a Mainhand hilt/barrel for you. This is the best use of these items.

<*> Relics: Again, you want Fortunate Redoubt and Reactive Warding. If you need either of these, run the Oricon mission series, which will lead you to the Dread Fortress. When you've completed your first Dread Fortress Op, you'll get a free Arkanian FR relic. Next, when you've completed your first Dread Palace Op, you'll get a free Arkanian RW relic. (NOTE: You must do them in order.)

You can also do PvP warzones to be able to purchase the Obroan (or later Brutalizer), which are better than Arkanian and even Underworld. In fact, in the specific case of the Brutalizer Relic of Reactive Warding, it is currently better than the Dread Forged Relic of Reactive Warding.

SPECIAL NOTE: Due to a bug in the game, the Arkanian Relic of Reactive Warding is actually better than all the higher-rated versions (up to, but not including, Brutalizer). Although the tooltip says that it will only proc once every 40 seconds, it actually procs every 20 seconds.

<*> Offhand (Shield): Just purchase an Oriconian shield with Ultimate Commendations. You'll later want to swap out the Enhancement and the B-Mod, but the 180-rating armoring is the piece you REALLY want.

Later on, you might even decide to purchase a Focus/Generator and replace the armoring with a DPS one.

<*> Earpiece & Implants: Aside from bosses 2 and 3 of S&V, an Arkanian one of these will drop from the final boss of the HM version of the Czerka Meltdown. For 180-rated Implants, get the materials when you are able and have one of the Guild crafters make one or both of them for you.

<*> Unlettered Mods: As you acquire Unassembled items (Arkanian, Underworld, Dread Forged), those items nearly always contain good Unlettered Mods. Hold on to those, even if you can't use them immediately.

In operations, when there are random gear drops for tanks, look them over. Often they will contain Mods that are higher in D/S/A than Endurance. These are the unlettered versions. If they have the proper Main stat for your class, roll Need on those. (On the other hand, if Endurance is the highest of the three values, then that's a B-Mod.)

In operations, when Unassembled Belts and Bracers drop, roll Need on those (assuming no one else in the Op actually needs the Belt or Bracer). The Belts/Bracers for Tanks will contain not only unlettered Mods, but also the Mods your Tank Class will need more of (such as Absorb for Shadows, where the Commendations gear for Shadows will be heavy on Defense).

Keep in mind that B-Mods aren't evil, they're just not as good as Unlettered Mods of the same rating.

<*> Enhancements: The Enhancements you ultimately want are the Bastion (for Shield & Defense) and Bulwark (for Shield & Absorb). Again, these will come from Unassembled items and from SOME of the random gear drops for tanks. As before, look them over. If Shield is the highest of the three values, Endurance in the middle, and Defense or Absorb the lowest; then it's a Bastion or Bulwark, respectively. (Overall, Bastion seems to be more common.)

Also, the Guild crafters can make both the Advanced Bastion Enhancement 34 and the Advanced Bulwark Enhancement 34 for you.

So what's the problem with things like Power, Crit, Surge, Alacrity, Accuracy?

The problem with Power and Crit is that they are both secondary stats, meaning they appear in Mods (along with Endurance and Main Stat) as well as Enhancements. But Defense and Absorb are also secondary stats, so every point of Power or Crit in a Mod or in Enhancement is a point of Defense or Absorb that you could have instead.

In fact, let's back up a bit and look at the four tiers of stats:

• Note that we're dealing with normal moddable gear here, not Ears or Implants.

With this in mind, you can see that any stats that are in the same tier can be switched out for each other on a one-for-one basis, just by changing a single item. Trading off items from different tiers (other than via Augments) is more complicated and can't be done on a direct one-for-one basis.

So aside from the Power found in Tank Augments and in Crystals, every point of Power and Crit you have could easily be Absorb or Defense instead.


Accuracy, Alacrity, and Surge are all tertiary stats, so they are competing with Shield for a space in your gear. This is why we've given the advice to use only Bastion and Bulwark Enhancements: these provide the higest level of Shield + Defense/Absorb that is available. There are other types of Enhancements that have the same 3 stats (e.g. Advanced Steadfast Enhancement 30), but the combined total of Shield + Defense/Absorb is less (compared to: e.g. Advanced Bastion Enhancement 30)

NOTE: The TORHead pop-ups say "Glance" instead of "Shield". I don't know why. They say they're going to fix it, but they haven't. :sad:

Isn't Accuracy useful for a Tank?

It would be better to say that it's less detrimental to your build than, say, Alacrity (especially for a Guardian); but you are still giving up Shield or other Mitigation stats when you have Accuracy in your gear.

Yes, there ARE those situations where you need to build up Threat very quickly, and a 10% chance to MISS with a high-threat attack could lead to disaster. In those cases, here's what you do instead:

Get some Accuracy Adrenals (...or a Reusable one if you're a BioChem).

One high-level Accuracy Adrenal will give you the 110% Accuracy that the DPS's need to always have for those crucial first 15 seconds.

I've heard a lot of negativity about Endurance here. What gives?

There are a couple of reasons for all this rage against Endurance.

<*> As mentioned above, there's a lot of misinformation about the importance of Endurance out there. So . . . we over-react a bit. Endurance is NOT bad to have. It's just not the most important thing.

<*> For good-or-bad, there is an in-game trend to measure the gear level of characters in a quick-and-dirty way by just looking at their HP. Where Tanks are concerned, this becomes an annoying trend, because players think that full Oriconian MK-1 gear bought with Ultimate Commendations is the end-all, be-all of Tank gear because it gives a Tank A LOT of HP--and other players reinforce that notion by responding as if it's true by just looking at HP.

This is a problem because this gear skews strongly toward high-Endurance and low-Mitigation, so a Tank in that gear will appear well-geared (if that's how you judge it), and many people will not look beyond that. In an environment like that, the "Comm Warrior" Tank really believes that there is no room for improvement in his/her gear.

A Personal Anecdote:
I can't tell you how many times I've come to a Group-Finder Operation or joined a PuG and been told that my Shadow would be the "Off-Tank". On the one hand, I don't mind, because it gives the other Tank more experience at actually DOING it if he/she needs it. But on the other hand, it irks me because I know I'm being plagued yet again by these two misconceptions: (1) More HP = Better Tank, and (2) Shadow Tanks Are Bad.

So I constructed a set of gear to maximize my Endurance. While wearing it, I tip the scales at almost 52K HP. It's not actually BAD, as gear goes, but it's definitely not as good as my "real" gear where I have just over 41K HP. One of these days, I'm totally gonna troll some PuG with it. :cool:

<*> Point-for-point, Mitigation stats are better for you than Endurance. There's a lot of Math to back up that statement, but the experts are all in agreement here. With high Endurance you can takes a lot of damage before you get killed, but with high Mitigation you don't take the damage in the first place.

<*> THINK OF THE HEALERS!!! A thought experiment:

Let's say you have 30K HP and an overall damage mitigation of 50%. During a Boss fight, a particular attack hits you for 30K HP, but you really only take 15K because of the mitigation. You're now at half-health.

Now let's say you have 60K HP, but an overall damage mitigation of 0%, because . . . well . . . just pretend. Same Boss, same attack, same 30K hit, . . . and you take the full 30K damage. You're now at half-health, same as before.

It's time for your healer to heal you up now. In the first case, your healer needs to send 15K of healing your way to get you back to 100%. In the second case, your healer needs to send 30K of healing at you to get you back to 100%. Your healer has to do twice as much work just to keep up!

Granted, this is an extreme example--constructed that way deliberately so the point being illustrated is easier to recognize--but the premise is still valid in smaller degrees. The more you maximize your Mitigation, the easier you are to heal, which makes you more effective in long fights.

Where should my HP actually be if I'm geared properly?
A fully-optimized Tank with 100% 180-rated BiS gear will weigh in at about 42K HP. Anything higher than this means that a Tank is NOT optimally-geared. (More to the point, such a Tank has NO BUSINESS BRAGGING about how awesome his or her gear is, nor about how great a Tank he or she is. Trust me. It'll happen.


In the next chapter, we'll discuss damage, damage types, and what things like DtPS, M/R, F/T, I/E & K/E mean; why "Internal" damage is of particular interest to you; and what makes "Nefra, Who Bars the way" (the first Boss in Dread Fortress) a one-of-a-kind Boss fight unlike any other in the game.