WATCHMEN

Hello and welcome! My name is Ladispute and I am The Watchmen's PvP tank! I was recruited for this position and have lived, breathed and played it since the creation of my Guardian. I loooooooove tanking. I like being the person people can depend on, never dying and most importantly I love HP. Seriously. Love it. Maaaaaaybe a little too much, but we'll get to that later. Basically what I’m saying is this guide comes from a veteran PvPer and a diehard Defensive Guardian, and will contain all of my knowledge about that specific role of the class. If you like smash crits, GET OUT (or stay, read and be converted)!

Why a Defensive Guardian?

Spoiler

First off, let's start with why you should be a Defensive Guardian. Highest HP, duh! Ok, jk jk. While that's one of the (main) reasons to be a Defensive Guardian there are many more, sensible, reasons as well.

Team Support: Defensive Guardians give the most team support of any class in the game. The high amount of CCs (Crowd Control, a technical term for Stuns/Incapacitates and Roots), high mobility (Force Leap and Guardian Leap), high HP (longevity in battle), as well as the ability to Guard healers, makes the Defensive Guardian easily one of the best classes to bring into a War Zone with your group.

Best Defensive Class: There isn't a class that's better set up to defend a node solo. The Guardian can hold off multiple enemies for up to 15 seconds with a combination of CCs (Awe AoE into Seismic Grenade AoE then Force Stasis, Hilt Strike, Force Push each individually), can take insane amounts of damage from multiple sources, and can easily kite enemies while still being able to quickly interrupt caps (Force Leap back/Saber Throw).

Huttballer: A Guardian is a must in Hutt Ball. I understand some teams can win without one but they're just making it harder on themselves. The combination of high HP, defensive stats, Force Leap (with Unremitting) and Guardian Leap, as well as the multitude of CCs to help you survive your way across the map, just makes that particular WZ so much easier.

The first two bullet points cover the two main roles you would ever need a class to fill: To be a part of the main group that is trying to cap points, or be the defender of a secured point. As you can see, the Defensive Guardian excels at both. The third bullet point is something specific, but should be kept in mind at all times. Since it is currently not possible to queue for specific WZs you should hedge your bets as best you can for whatever WZ you might get. Having a Guardian in the group goes a long ways towards swaying the Hutt Ball match in your favor.

Builds

Spoiler

Ok so, I’m a Defensive Guardian because it’s the best fit for my play group, how should I build my toon? Well, it all depends on what your group needs you to do. There's 3 main builds that I've seen being used.

Full Defense (31/0/10):

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/guardian#1fde1j1ke8-d2f-0

Don't use this build. The only reason I'm bringing it up is to tell you why it's bad. Most people use this build so that they can play defensively but still have a hard hitting move in Guardian Slash. What ends up happening is that you're less useful defensively than the 27/2/12 build, and put out less dps than the 16/0/25, so you're a jack of all (some) trades, master of none. Another reason this build is bad is that if you're going to go that heavy into the Defense tree then you are going to be filling the control/support role, and therefore shouldn't need to focus on damage too much.

Vigilance/Defense (16/0/25):

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/guardian#21j0je8-210ie2e2f-0

I’m going to be honest here and let you know I haven’t tried this build much at all, but other people swear by it. This build has almost as much control as 27/2/12 but puts out much more damage. If your group is running multiple tanks, or maybe just suffers from under geared dps or subpar players, then this build might be right for you. You keep  the no-channel Force Stasis (which I personally believe is a must) and gain Commanding Awe which is comparable to the Inner Peace and Command talents in the Defense Tree (4% reduction to ALL damage is better than to just elemental/internal, and a reduced cool down on Force Push is comparable to a reduced cool down on Awe).  Personally, my group has high enough dps so going this spec isn’t needed, but is definitely a viable choice.

Defense/Vigilance (27/2/12):

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/guardian#cde7j0ke8-20d2f-2

This is my current build, and has been since 1.2 (with a minor change in 1.3); therefore I’ll be going very in depth in my analysis of this build and will be referring to it for the rest of the guide as “my build.” First off, the build is based solely around control and support. We grab the no-channeled Force Stasis, reduced CD on Force Push, gain the Hilt Strike ability and spec into Vigilance to grab Unremitting.  All of these points help us control the flow of battle and restrict what our opponents can do. I don’t want to get too much into the play style with this build, since I’ll cover that in another section, but the goal of this build isn’t to necessarily kill, but control enemies to the point where their being alive is futile. There are a few offensive talent points (Master Focus and Perseverance), but those are just picked up with spare points and doesn’t mean that you should, or can, go all out dps. Unremitting is a must. I could never go back to a build without it. Being able to stay on your target is extremely beneficial when peeling dps off of your healers and it makes Hutt Ball bearable (again, hedge your bets).  The 20% damage reduction is extremely relevant and I find myself leaping at almost every opportunity just to get that buff, since every little bit helps. Defiance might seem a little weird at first but the fact that you can use Focused Defense while incapacitated makes these points worth it. For example, if you get opened up on by an Operative/Smuggler, or some other class with a lot of stuns, you will immediately be granted 4 focus and therefore be able to activate Focused Defense, and then the next stun will grant you 4 more focus which then goes towards your Focus Defense ticks. This helps to mitigate some of the opening burst from classes and allows you to come out of a stun lock with a good chunk of HP left. Anyways, like I said, I don’t want to go too in depth into this build until later, but basically I believe this build is amazing in groups with high dps, or few tanks, and is the premier healer guarding build.

Gear

Spoiler

Ok so, I’m a Defensive Guardian because it’s the best fit for my play group, I chose the Defense/Vigilance hybrid because I want to fill more of a control/support role, so now what kind of gear should I get? Well, the answer is kind of complicated, and unfortunately involves a lot of remodding for optimal stats.

First, let’s talk about stats.

Endurance: Hands down the most important stat for a Defensive Guardian. Not only does it make you survive longer in combat, allow you to take more damage from guarding a healer, and make your Focused Defense, Enure, Guardian Leap (with Vindicator Set bonus) and War Zone Medpac scale better and heal for more, but it LOOKS COOL. Ya, that’s right I said it. Sure, it makes you almost unkillable in combat, and makes basically every defensive ability you have even better, but most importantly – high HP is PIMP. In all seriousness, this is the main stat you should be stacking and looking for. MOAR.

Strength: Meh. You’ll get it on gear and it’s nice to have some damage but honestly don’t go out of your way to stack it (although if you’re running the Vigilance build you might value this higher). You should be willing to give up strength for a comparable amount of endurance, with it being a lot of strength for only a little endurance for me (well, not me but maybe you) to decline the swap.

Besides these two main stats there are three additional defensive stats: Defense, Shield and Absorption Rating (great guide here: http://taugrim.com/2012/01/19/understanding-swtors-avoidance-and-mitigation-mechanics-for-tanks-in-pvp/). All three of these stats are only applied to “white” damage (aka not force and tech attacks).Defense gives you a percent chance to fully dodge, parry or deflect those incoming white attacks, which fully mitigates the damage. Shield is a percent chance to shield an incoming non-crit white attack which causes the damage to be reduced by a percent equal to your absorption rating. Shield chance is affected by your opponent’s crit rating, as you cannot shield a critical hit, and a high enough crit chance can completely negate your ability to shield the attacker’s abilities (explained more in depth in the link above). Absorption rate is the amount, as a percent, of damage that is negated when shielding an attack. Knowing this, we can say that defense is the best stat, since it fully mitigates white attacks when it works, and shield and absorption rate are inferior, since they only mitigate a percentage of non-crit white attacks when they work, and are linked together, since lots of shield with no absorption would be worthless and vice-versa.

Expertise: This stat is very interesting. You need a lot so that you’re on a level playing field with your enemies, but when facing opponents with similar expertise the stat does next to nothing, since they cancel each other out. Another reason not to overload on expertise as a tank is because you actually don’t get hit that much. Now that might sounds weird but most teams will never focus down the tank, but will instead be attacking his guard buddy as a means to do damage to both players. Guard damage, as far as I know, is unaffected by expertise and so raw stats, like endurance, will give you greater survivability in these situations. This means that while you need a good amount, you can sacrifice some of the top end for other stats since the actual difference is greatly reduced after about 1100.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at my gear:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/76d4572d-bd1c-4a76-86a5-0048c1036a33

This is my character. Yes, I’m that handsome. And yes, I can have 26875 HP on a good day :D I’m going to go piece by piece and tell you why I have it and what I have done to it to make it best in slot (BiS).

Battlemaster War Leader’s Module – I use the BM earpiece for a couple of reasons. First, it has more endurance than the War Hero version (and I love me some HP). Second, it has defense and accuracy over shield and absorption rating, and as we discussed above defense > shield and absorption rating. Accuracy, while you don’t want to stack it, is nice and you should aim for about 97%. Therefore, these stats are clearly better and I should not upgrade the piece (lol Bioware). I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

Battlemaster War Leader’s Implant– I use the BM implants for a couple of reasons. First, it has more endurance than the War Hero version (and I love me some HP). Second, it has defense and accuracy over shield and absorption rating, and as we discussed above defense > shield and absorption rating. Accuracy, while you don’t want to stack it, is nice and you should aim for about 97%. Therefore, these stats are clearly better and I should not upgrade the piece (lol copy-paste). I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

Guardian’s Exalted Bracers – I use these bracers over the actual War Hero bracers because remodding them with an [Advanced Guardian Armoring 25] and a [War Hero’s Elusive Mod 26B] yields 32 more endurance, 25 more strength and only sacrifices 40 expertise. As stated above, at high values of expertise it is ok to sacrifice some for other stats like endurance, which yields both higher survivability from an increase in max HP as well as more healing with your HP scaling abilities. I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

War Hero War Leader’s Headgear – I use the original [War Hero War Leader’s Headgear (Armoring)] because I need the 2 piece set bonus. The [War Hero’s Resilient Mod 26B] is worse than the [War Hero’s Elusive Mod 26B] since it has absorb rating instead of defense, so I replaced it. [War Hero’s Steadfast Enhancement 26] is the best enhancement, so I left that there. I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

War Hero War Leader’s Body Armor – I use the original [War Hero War Leader’s Body Armor (Armoring)] because I need the 2 piece set bonus. I replaced the [War Leader’s Elusive Mod 26] with the [War Leader’s Elusive Mod 26B] since it has way more endurance. I replaced the [War Hero’s Bastion Enhancement 26] with the [War Hero’s Steadfast Enhancement 26] since it has more endurance and similar defensive stats. I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

War Hero War Leader’s Gloves - I replaced the [War Hero War Leader’s Handgear (Armoring)] with the [War Hero Vindicator’s Handgear (Armoring)] because, although they have the same stats, I wanted to pick up the Vindicator 2 piece set bonus. First, the 5% more damage while guarding that the 4 piece War Leader set bonus gives you is just awful, as you should not be worried about doing damage as this spec. Second, An 8% heal of my current 26.5k HP is 2.12k (although reduced in combat due to the Trauma debuff), which, when done every 20 seconds, drastically increases survivability. You can also set up the super combo of Enure/Rakata Medpac and then Guardian Leap which will heal you for 8% of your inflated HP. I replaced the glove armoring because it’s one of the cheapest pieces to buy, since you’re only buying it for the armoring. I replaced the [War Hero’s Resilient Mod 26] with the [War Hero’s Elusive Mod 26B] since it has more endurance as well as defense over absorption rating. I replaced the [War Hero’s Bulwark Enhancement 26] with the [War Hero’s Vigilant Enhancement 26] because it more endurance and similar defensive stats. I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

Guardian’s Exalted Belt - I use this belt over the actual War Hero belt because modding it with an [Advanced Guardian Armoring 25] and a [War Hero’s Elusive Mod 26B] yields 46 more endurance, 16 more strength and only sacrifices 40 expertise. As stated above, at high values of expertise it is ok to sacrifice some for other stats like endurance, which yields both higher survivability from an increase in max HP as well as more healing with your HP scaling abilities. I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

War Hero War Leader’s Greaves – I replaced the [War Hero War Leader’s Greaves (Armoring)] with the [Advanced Guardian Armoring 25] because I only need the War Leader 2 piece set bonus and the Vindicator 2 piece set bonus, which leaves 1 left over slot. I chose the [Advanced Guardian Armoring] because of the same reasons as stated with the Bracers and Belt. I replaced the [War Hero's Resilient Mod 26B] with the [War Hero's Elusive Mod 26B] since it has defense over absorption. I replaced the [War Hero's Vigilant Enhancement 26] with the [War Hero's Steadfast Enhancement 26] because it has defense over absorption. I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

War Hero War Leader's Boots - PERFECT ITEMIZATION! Grats, Bioware, you got 1 out of 11 pieces correct. So, you might have been wondering where you'd be getting all the mods and enhancements to make the above changes to your gear from and the answer is this piece. Luckily for us it's also one of the cheapest pieces. If I remember correctlty I had to buy 8 of these to max out my stats (lol). Also, since these are cheap, I replaced the [War Hero War Leader's Boots (Armoring)] with the [War Hero Vindicator's Boots (Armoring)] so that I could get the 2 piece Vindicator set bonus (as detailed above in the gloves' section). I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

War Hero War Leader's Lightsaber - I replaced the [Advanced Green War Hero's Crystal] with the [Advanced Black-Green Indestructible Crystal] (can be any color, but I like that it matches my vomit-green gear color), for more endurance (see above for why it's ok to trade out expertise for endurance). I kept the [War Hero's Rage Hilt 26] because it is the best of the PvP hilts. I replaced the [War Hero’s Resilient Mod 26] with the [War Hero’s Elusive Mod 26B] because it has more endurance as well as defense over absorption rating. I replaced the [War Hero’s Bulwark Enhancement 26] with the [War Hero’s Steadfast Enhancement 26] because it more endurance and defense over absorption rating. Basically, if you don't care about maximizing your stats (which you should!) you can just buy the Battlemaster Saber and then swap in the endurance crystal and the War Hero War Leader Boots' mod and enhancement and you'll end up with the same thing but with 3 less endurance, so you don't have to spend the 3475 ranked comms on the War Hero War Leader's Lightsaber. I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

Battlemaster War Leader's Shield Generator - This piece is similar to the Ear Piece and the Implants in that the Battlemaster pieces have more endurance (still not sure why a lesser tier item has more of any stat), but this one at least gives you marginal upgrades in all the other stats. I think if I didn't value endurance so highly it might be ok to upgrade this, but I do and I didn't so whatevs. In any case, the stat increase is so small, and the piece so expensive, that if you were to upgrade to this it should be the last thing you do. I Augmented it with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

War Hero Relic of Imperling Serenity - Prior to 1.3 the best configuration of relics was to use your Matrix cube and then the on-use PvP defense boosting relic. Post patch however, it is correct to drop the Matrix Cube for a second defense relic. Let me show you why: 

Matrix vs PvP

59 str vs 57 exp

68 end vs 41 end

21 def vs 113 def

Trading 59 strength for 57 expertise seems like a great value since I don't care about damage much while expertise still increases damage, buffs my survivability and my healing (Focused Defense and Guardian Leap). Downgrading from 68 enduance to 41 endurance makes me cringe and makes this decisions a lot closer than it should be tbh but... meh, I guess it's worth it. 21 defense becomes 113 defense. Ya, huge buff, no question. So, all in all the new PvP relic outshines the Matrix Cube for me as a tank. It might be possible, in certain situations (like if you never get directly attacked, ever), that the Matrix Cube could be better because it has higher strength and endurance which are better raw protection stats, but the huge amount of defense is just so much better than what the Matrix Cube gives that it probably won't be correct the majority of the time. I Augmented both with an [Advanced Fortitude Augment 22].

And that concludes the gear section! It's pretty annoying that you basically have to change evey piece of gear that you own to maximize its stats, but it needs to be done. Just take it one piece at a time, upgrading your worst pieces first, and it'll eventually get done.

 

Play Style

Spoiler

Ok so, I’m a Defensive Guardian because it’s the best fit for my play group, I chose the Defense/Vigilance hybrid because I want to fill more of a control/support role, and I’ve gotten all my gear perfectly remodded for optimal performance (or working on it). Now what? Play games! But… how?

The Defensive Guardian play style is unlike any other class play style in the game. As a non-defensive class you are normally focused on burning down enemy healers, or hard hitting-dps, and roaming around the map in search for weak points in the enemy’s defense in order to cap; while it is important for you to know where your teammates are, and to work together to down opponents, you don’t have to worry too much about the specifics of their situation or what they are doing all the time. A Defensive Guardian is the exact opposite. Your focus is entirely on your team, with only enough thought given to enemies to know where they are so you can peel them off your teammates, interrupt heals, and help dispatch low HP opponents. Your main job however is to PROTECT YOUR HEALERS. I cannot stress that enough. So with this in mind let’s go over some of your main abilities.

Guard

You are a Guardian and your job is to guard! Hotkey guard to a convenient key (mine is scroll down on my mouse wheel, since it’s just a simple flick of the finger) and always have a guard up on your designated healer buddy. If he somehow dies make sure to switch your guard to someone else in the meantime (perhaps your most important dps) and then immediately back to your healer buddy when they get back from respawn. Remember, a target can be guarded from 30 meters but must be within 15 meters to actually receive the guard buff, so stay close!

Taunt

On top of guarding you must always be continuously taunting! Again, keybind both your single target taunt and AoE taunt to convenient keys and make sure they are constantly on cool down. Each second they aren’t used means your teammates are taking unnecessary damage because you were sloppy. Make sure to taunt the dps that are attacking your healers first, and if for some reason there isn’t anyone focusing your heals go ahead and taunt the highest dps opponent in sight. Make sure your AoE taunt is used at all times and make sure you are in range of the enemies (perhaps Force Leap into a group, use it, then Guardian Leap out). Be careful about tab targeting to taunt, though, as you can easily land on a healer, or incapacitated target, and waste a taunt on them.

Guardian Leap/Intercede

Another skill you should be using at every available moment is your Guardian Leap (even if right next to your target). This leap grants your friendly target a 20% damage reduction buff for 6 seconds, which combined with the 55% damage reduction from your guard, and possible taunts on opponents, can reduce the amount of damage your teammate is taking significantly. Guardian Leap not only provides your teammate with a beneficial buff but, since we have the 2 piece Vindicator set bonus, it also heals us for 8% of our max HP! While these buffs on their own are amazing, don’t forget about the actual leaping part! If you ever get chain CC’d, have to Force Leap to an enemy healer to interrupt a cast/finish them off, or just lose track of your healer, spamming Guardian Leap will take you right back to your buddy so you can get back to what you’re supposed to be doing – guarding!

Force Leap/Force Charge

Force Leap is one of the most versatile abilities you have. First and foremost, it is used as a gap closer when fighting an enemy. It lets you get in close and roots the target so you can smack them around with Master Strike or a Sunder and a Slash.

Next, Unremitting grants you a 20% damage reduction buff and makes you immune to all incapacitating effects for 4 seconds. There are only a handful of things more satisfying (more HP perhaps?) than Force Leaping and then resisting a knock back or Force Choke that your opponent casts as a reflex. The fact that you know that when you leap you will stay there, awake, for at least 4 seconds lets you sculpt plays that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to do without Unremitting, and makes sure when you need to get a dps off your healer that you will do so, without being stunned/interrupted. Basically, it makes your actions certain rather than hopeful. The 20% damage reduction is a main point as well since it’s a 20% DR to every kind of damage, which is HUGE. You want to try and leap as much as possible so that the up time of this buff is maximized.

Unremitting isn’t the only thing sweet about Force Leap though - it also roots your target in place for 3 full seconds, and is unaffected by resolve. This is insane. In Hutt Ball you can leap to full resolve targets that think they can safely cross the fire, only to root them in place as the flames come up. You can use this to root targets who are trying to interrupt caps, enemies trying to go help defend a turret your team is attacking, or just to help peel dps off of your healers. That’s right, Force Leap can be used defensively too! If a dps that is focusing your healer buddy happens to have full resolve (so you can’t just stun them to take them off) then you can leap to them so that they are rooted and can no longer chase your buddy. For melee classes this acts almost as a 3 second stun (since they can’t continue attacking your healer as he runs further away), unaffected by resolve. INSANE.

So ya, Force Leap is incredible since it has so much util… oh wait. That’s right it INTERRUPTS TOO. When you Force Leap to a target it immediately interrupts their current cast. See a Sorcerer with his hands in the air casting his AoE? Tab over, Force Leap to him and then Guardian Leap back to your healer buddy. In 2 seconds you’ve manage to interrupt a major heal, do a small amount of leap damage, root the enemy healer, gain the Unremitting buff for yourself, then, upon leaping back, gained 8% of your HP back, granted a 20% DR buff to your healer buddy and ended up back to his current position so you can continue guarding and peeling for him. This goes for basically any heal or high damage AoE cast. There’s almost no reason not to leap over there and interrupt it.

So, we’ve learned that Force Leap is awesome and you should use it as much as possible, since it’s good in almost every situation. Also, it wins Hutt Ball (told you Guardians were good there).

Force Kick/Disruption

This is one of your absolute best abilities. and the hallmark of a good player is utilizing their interrupts optimally. I have it hotkeyed to mouse-scroll up so that when I see someone casting I can quickly flick my finger and interrupt it. From heals to Lightning to Tracer Missle to interrupting caps (Force Kick is off the GCD and sometimes you can't wait for the GCD), it's important to use this ability as much as possible. Find out which abilities are key for each class and learn the visual effects and cast bar icon of it so that you can recognize it immediately. Don't be lazy and not Force Kick, it really is incredibly important.

Force Stasis and Hilt Strike/Force Choke and Backhand

I’m going to group these two abilities together because they are very similar. Let’s start with Force Stasis since it’s the better of the two. Force Stasis is a somewhat ranged CC (10 meters) that, with the 2 piece War Leader set bonus, stuns the target for 5 seconds. Since we picked up Stasis Mastery this move is no longer channeled which allows us to continue doing other things while our target is CC’d. Hilt Strike is similar to Force Stasis but is a melee range ability and only stuns the target for 4 seconds (it is important to note that since Force Stasis is a 5 second stun it grants more resolve than Hilt Strike, which is a 4 seconds stun). They both have a 1 minute cool down.

You want to use these abilities as much as possible, as they are both very important for peeling dps off of your healers. Use these stuns after you have taunted the dps and try and make sure the stuns and taunts don’t overlap (what’s the point of taunting if your target isn’t allowed to attack?). Of course if your healer buddy is super pressured and needs an immediate reprieve from sabers to the face, then by all means choke away! Like taunting, it is important that you use these stuns as much as possible since maximum up time will provide the greatest damage reduction in the long run.

However there are some key times to use, and not use, these abilities. First, you can use these stuns as interrupts to abilities that cannot be interrupted normally. For example, Force Lightning from an Assassin with 3 stacks of Harnessed Darkness cannot be interrupted by using your kick, but since it is such a high damage move, and also heals the user for a good chunk of HP, it is important that you interrupt it with the use of one of these stuns. Another example of this is Ravage from Marauders or Juggernauts. While you can’t kick the move it is important you interrupt it so you can save your healer buddy from the massive damage as well as free them from the root if there is one (Carnage Marauders).

Another great use of these abilities is to shut down enemy healers. If your teammates are attacking a healer but are out of stuns, and you have some time, feel free to leap over (interrupting a heal), kick the next heal, then use either Force Stasis or Hilt Strike to lock them out of casting anything else while your teammates finish him off (then Guardian Leap back).

Now there are times when you should hold on to your stuns, like when you, or your healer buddy, are not being pressured. There’s no need to stun a single dps off of your healer if he can easily heal through it. Instead root/slow/taunt him and then take your time whittling him down. Another good time to save your stuns is when you’re on the offensive in Voidstar, or any capture the point WZ, and you are about to cap, since it is extremely important that you CC respawning enemies so that they cannot interrupt your cap attempt.

So, to recap, the use of Force Stasis and Hilt Strike is pretty straight forward, but there are some corner situations that require you to plan ahead and know when to use/not use them. Overall though, you should just try and keep them up as much as possible since you want to keep the dps off your healer buddy as much as you can. It sucks that CC protection isn’t on the scoreboard, but you know at the end of the match that you prevented a lot more damage than what is listed, so go ahead and pat yourself on the back – we don’t need no stinkin’ scoreboard.

Force Push

Oh, Force Push, I’m sure we all have at least one sweet story about this ability, as this is possibly the coolest/most fun move in the game. Not only is it cool, it’s extremely versatile and important too! I would definitely classify Force Push as a stun. There’s the “flying” part, followed by a brief period of the target getting back on their feet, which, when put together, takes the target out of combat for about 2 seconds (as well as any time they lose having to run back to the fight). Force Push also resets the cool down on your Force Leap ability, which is a key point in using this move correctly.

A common thing I see Guardians do, defensive and offensive alike, is to Force Leap to the target, immediately Force Push and then Force Leap again. My eyes bleed every time. First, you didn’t take advantage of the 3 second root from the original Force Leap, next you used Force Push not as an interrupt or clutch stun or to gain a positional advantage, but instead as a mini break between your first and second Force Leap, and third you wasted some of your Unremitting buff from the first leap, since it hadn’t run the full 4 second course. Let’s talk a little theory for a second. Would you be happy if Force Push was removed and replaced with another move that, instead of pushing your enemy back and effectively stunning them for 2 seconds, just caused 500 damage and gained you 1000 HP? NO! That move is quite obviously worse than the current Force Push, but if you think about it, using the opener of Force Leap, Force Push, Force Leap, makes Force Push exactly that. You deal the damage that Force Push deals, and then you gain life equal to the amount of damage you would have taken had you not used it. In most situations the target may have gotten off 1 or 2 auto attacks, or perhaps a special move, but usually nothing in those two seconds would be worth wasting a perfectly good and versatile move such as Force Push. Yes, if your opponent immediately uses Ravage or some other uninterruptable move and it would save you a ton of HP to push them right then, then by all means do it. But don’t just auto use Force Push as part of your rotation. You’re wasting it! (This reasoning can be applied to all CC effects in this situation, not just Force Push).

With that out of the way, let’s talk about some of the correct ways to use this amazing ability. First, Force Push is one of the best ways to get dps off of your healer. You can leap onto the dps, then, after the root is finished, Force Push them away from your buddy, and then, once your target has landed and gotten fully to their feet, Force Leap to him again to apply another root, and then Guardian Leap back to your buddy. This provides a full 8+ seconds of relief to your healer buddy, as well as frustrates the hell out of the dps that you just tossed around. Make sure whenever following up Force Push with a Force Leap to wait to leap until the target is about to stand up straight. This makes sure you utilize the full duration of the knockdown, so that it and the root from your leap don’t overlap.

Another main use for Force Push is to use it as an interrupt (if you’re out of kick range or kick is on cool down). There are some moves that are too powerful to be allowed to be cast against your team such as Salvation/Revivification, high damage AoEs, and other high damage channeled abilities. Usually, you can kick these, but if your kick happens to be on cool down you need to be able to interrupt it another way. While you can Hilt Strike/Force Stasis to interrupt casts, Force Push has the awesome combo of Force Leap, Force Push, Force Leap. WAIT WUT U JUST SED TO NE’ER DO DAT!!11!1!!one!! No, I said as an opener that it’s beyond horrible. However, remember, one of my reasons was that you aren’t using Force Leap or Force Push to their full potential since you aren’t using either to interrupt casts, or using the root to full effect. You can, however, leap to interrupt a casted ability, then, when they try and cast it again, you can use your kick, then you can push them to interrupt it again and then, once they get up from the knock down and try to cast again, you can leap to interrupt it a fourth time (then Hilt Strike/Force Stasis followed by a kick if need be). See the difference? With the opener you are doing very little damage and preventing very little damage, but with this sequence you are preventing a great deal of damage or healing and locking down the target so that your own dps can easily take them out without fear of retaliation. Force Push, like Hilt Strike and Force Stasis, can also be used to interrupt abilities that cannot be kicked.

So, I hope that if you take anything away from this guide that it's to never use Force Push, or any kind of stun, as an opener. Force Push can be used for so much more and you're doing yourself, and your team, a disservice by wasting it.

Awe/Intimidating Roar

Awe is awe-mazing! The ability to AoE mezz (a CC that is broken by damage) any amount of nearby enemies is extremely powerful. However, without proper communication with your team it usually ends up just being free resolve for your enemies, so make sure to call out before you use it.

The main use of this ability is to keep enemies off of your healer buddy. If your healer buddy is being pressured by multiple enemies you can Guardian Leap to him and then, once the Guardian Leap damage reduction buff wears off, use Awe. Sometimes you can't wait for the duration of the buff to wear off though, so go ahead and use Awe right away.

You start with Awe for a couple of reasons. First, it provides immediate relief for your healer. If you were to Force Leap to root one, then tab and use Force Stasis, then tab and use Hilt Strike, it's entirely possible that by the time you got them all CC'd your healer could be dead, or at least in a worse position. If you leap and immediately use Awe then it lifts all of the pressure off your healer simultaneously and allows him to heal up without worry of more damage, or possible stuns or interrupts. Secondly, most people will immediately use their CC breaker when CC'd, and since Awe is a mezz, and therefore is more easily broken (since it can be accidently broken by teammates' damage), it is best to use it first so that they will use their CC breaker on it and then you can lock them down with a hard stun like Hilt Strike or Force Stasis.

Awe also has uses outside of just protecting your healer buddy. For instance, when defending a node/door you can leap out to the outskirts of the battle and use Awe on a couple of the ranged dps/healers to lessen the incoming damage on your team/the heals on the enemy team.

In addition to stopping enemies from attacking, Awe also stops enemies from moving. Although it seem obvious, it is easy to forget that Awe can just be used to buy your team time while they try and cap an objective. Positioning yourself in between where the enemy would reinforce from and the cap point will allow you to use Awe to stop multiple enemies from interrupting the cap. It even hits stealthed enemies!

If you are ever defending a node solo then you can use Awe just to buy yourself time for your team to make their way over to help you. Slow the enemies and round them up and then Awe them all. You can then run away and when they come out of it Force Leap (so you get Unremitting) and then follow it up with a Seismic Grenade for another AoE mezz and then after that you can Force Choke one, Hilt Strike one and Force Push one.

Awe is a very versatile ability that requires proper timing, positioning and communication to be used optimally. However, once you've learned to use it properly it's definitely... AWEsome.

Freezing Force/Chilling Scream

This is the last of the CC abilities but certainly not least (well.. I mean I guess it's least too since the other ones are better). Since we have the Solidified Force talent Freezing Force is free and only has a .5 second Global Cooldown, which makes it very close to spammable. This should always be up on the enemy dps that are on your healer for obvious reasons. It, like the other CC's, can also be used to delay enemies trying to reinforce a node that your team is trying to cap. You really should use this ability a lot more than you think because, while it seems like it doesn't do too much, it provides an amazing advantage to your team over a long period of time.

Blade Storm/Force Scream

Blade Storm is a hybrid ability that is both important on offense and defense. Offensively Blade Storm is a moderately damaging ability, and is one of your few semi-ranged attacks and therefore great for interrupting caps on nodes/doors (I have it keybinded to the '1' key so that right clicking on your target will automatically use it in these situations). It also costs no focus after a Force Leap so it can give you some good damage when you're low on resources.

Since we picked up the Blade Barrier talent Blade Storm actually gives a fair amount of damage mitigation as well. Pre 1.3 it was found through testing, since the tool tip only says "moderate amount of damage" (really Bioware?), to be a shield for 850 damage. With 1.3 it was patched to "the amount absorbed by Blade Barrier now scales properly based on character stats." With some testing it is determined now to be 5% of your maximum health (yay!) which with 26.5k comes out to be 1325, so I'll be using that number to show that this talent isn't actually as bad as it seems:

Blade Storm has a cool down of 12 seconds which means we can use it 5 times per minute. 1325 x 5 = 6625 "more life" per minute. We can compare this to Hilt Strike (a talent I believe we all think is good) by seeing how much damage, on average, that it prevents per minute. Let's say that the average dps of a rated player is 1300. 1300dps x 4 sec = 5200 damage mitigated. Since you can only use Hilt Strike once per minute we can say that Hilt Strike adds 4800 "more life" per minute. 

So, is Blade Storm really that much worse than Hilt Stike in terms of mitigation? No, they're actually quite similar. However, there are some major differences. First, Blade Storm does its protection in chunks of 1325 at a time which means you have to survive inbetween the uses, and for the whole minute, to receive that amount of mitigation. It also is only protection for you. Hilt Strike has the upside of delivering all of its "protection" immediately, can "protect" your healers from that damage and also acts as an interrupt. While Hilt Strike is obviously a better move, I'm just trying to show that the little chunks of protection that Blade Storm gives you add up and amounts to a good amount of survivability in the long run. Use this ability at every opportunity.

Riposte/Retaliation

Riposte is an awesome ability for a few reasons. First, it's off the Global Cooldown which means we can use it at anytime (except when channeling Master Strike). This gives us a little bit of burst since we can Blade Storm and Riposte at the same time, which is nice. Secondly, since we picked up both the Lunge and Blade Barricade talents, it only costs a single focus and also grants us 3% more defense for 12 seconds. While it was definitely better in 1.2 (since it granted 6% increased defense) it is still an awesome ability and you should have the buff up at all times, there's just no reason not to.

Strike/Assault

Bread and butter focus builder. Not much to say here but you'll be using it a lot since you don't have many other offensive moves and you need focus to fuel your Focused Defense and Slash spam.

Sundering Strike/Sunderin Assault

This should be used every single time it is up. It deals more damage than Strike, grants 2 focus in Soresu form, and applies 2 stacks of sunder armor (thanks to the aptly named Improved Sundering Strike talent) to your target. Basic but very useful.

Slash/Vicious Slash

Spam it when you're at full focus and your other focus spenders are on cool down. Make sure to always have enough focus to use Riposte when it's back up though, and don't go crazy with it if you plan on using Focused Defense soon.

Master Strike/Ravage

Master Strike is your hardest hitting move and therefore needs to be used intelligently so that you get the maximum value from it. Try and use it after you Force Leap so they can't run out of range, or on a stunned enemy. Landing a full Master Strike on an enemy can go a long way towards being able to kill them and get them off your healer buddy. It's also decent to use on enemy healers to keep them pressured when you have time.

Dispatch/Vicious Throw

While your main concern is protection, not damage, watching out for opportunities to Dispatch low HP opponents is a very important way you can contribute to your teams dps. An enemy being "almost" dead doesn't count so it's important to finish them off completely so that they can't continue to do damage or be healed up. Honestly, I think Dispatching low HP opponents is only second to protecting your healer buddy in your list of priorities. Do it as much as possible.

Saber Throw

I have to be honest and admit that I don't use Saber Throw nearly enough. I just always want to get my Force Leap off right away to gain Unremitting so I don't usually open with it, and then I'm usually in melee range of my opponents because I'm protecting my healer. One good thing that has come from being frugal with my Saber Throw though is that it's almost always off cool down when I need to interrupt a capping enemy. This, and Force Leap, are your best abilities for doing that since they're your longest range abilties. Maybe you can squeeze Saber Throw in your rotation more, but I'm fine just using it an interrupt for capping.

Focuse Defense/Enraged Defense

I think this ability is awesome and I'm so glad it was added in 1.2 since it scales with your max HP and therefore rewards me (gives me an excuse) to stack endurance.

It also provides a steady stream of mitigation while active and does so in a unique way. What I mean is that instead of just reducing the damage you take, like normal mitigation abilities, you take the damage and then are "refunded" some of the damage back as life healed. This has a couple of interesting implications:

First, you have to take damage to be healed which is why this is a form of mitigation, and not a healing ability. This also means that while you want this ability to be up as much as possible, if you aren't getting hit then it's useless (although this is true for all of the damage mitigation abilities).

Secondly, since you have to take the full amount of damage first it is entirely possible that you die before being "refunded" the health, which makes it a little worse upfront than a regular mitigation ability would be.

Lastly, if you have a DoT (damage over time) on you that hits for less than your Focused Defense ticks heal you for, then you actually gain health! A regular mitgation ability would only slightly off set the small amount of DoT damage and therefore still cause you to take damage. As mentioned above, it scales with your maximum HP so using Enure or a Rakata Medpac will make it heal you for more and increases the likelyhood of healing for more than the incoming damage hits you for.

While this is an awesome mitigation ability, make sure you have the focus to "feed" it. It sucks when you can't activate it because you don't have the initial 4 focus (try to use Combat Focus first to gain at least the initial focus) , or when you do activate it and immediately run out of focus. Therefore focus producing abilities become a higher priority when Focused Defense is active, so that you can get maximum survivability from it.

Focused Defense can also be activated while cc'd which is amazing, and the reason I put 2 points in Defiance (I touched briefly on this in the Builds section). Being able to activate Focused Defense when stun locked increases the likelyhood of getting out of it alive, and will get you out of situations where you thought you were dead for sure.

The fact that Focused Defense "heals" you also means that when used in combination with Guardian Leap, with the Vindicator set bonus, you can get your healing medal in PvP, which is definitely pretty awesome. I think the highest self healing I've had in a match was close to 150k.

Focused Defense is an awesome mitigation ability with a relatively short cool down, and therefore your go to move for survivability. Learn when and how to use it properly and you'll see a noticeable increase in your survivability.

Saber Ward

Pretty straight forward damage mitigation ability. The first 2 seconds of it grant you full immunity to non-force/tech attacks thanks to Blade Turning, and then after that it increases your melee and ranged defense by 50% and reduces Force/Tech damage by 25%. One thing to realize is that it doesn't decrease the melee and ranged damage done to you, only increase your chance to "defend" against it. This means that, in the unluckiest of situations where you don't dodge/parry/deflect any incoming attacks, that it's totally possible that this ability does next to nothing. Now, I'm not saying that this is normal, but you should take note that you still take 100% damage from non-force/tech attacks, but just have a lower chance to be hit by them. 

Unfortunately this skill is kind of a "nonbo" (non-combo) with Focused Defense since for Focused Defense to heal you you must take damage, and this move increases your chance to dodge/parry/deflect and take no damage from attacks.

Overall you just want to use Saber Ward when you're feeling pressured to give yourself some breathing room as you figure out a way to survive.

Warding Call/Invincible

Not much to say about this skill. Reduces all damage taken by 40% for 10 seconds. Amazing increase to your survivability since it reduces all types of damage. Unfortunate that it and Saber Ward have such long cool downs (3 minutes compared to Guarded by the Force's 75 seconds, fair and balanced). Try not to overlap your defensive cool downs too much since they're all so powerful that you can go a little overboard and waste them a bit. Better to steadily reduce incoming damage so you can get healed through it than to take almost no damage for a few seconds and then, when that's over, get nuked down faster than you can get healed.

Enure/Endure Pain

Awesome skill that saves you from the brink of death and helps you survive just a littler longer while you figure out how to get yourself out of the situation you're in. Make sure you use Enure at the end of your life because if you use it while at high HP it just goes away and you see no real benefit. This move also combos with your "healing" skills. It makes your Guardian Leap heal for a lot more, your Focused Defense ticks greater and even makes your Warzone Medpac ridiculously overpowered. If you are at less HP than the amount it increased your life by at the time the buff ends then you will be left with exactly 1 hp. Those are fun times :P

Definitely one of my favorite abilities since I've had so many situations where I was basically dead and then escaped with just enough HP thanks to this skill.

Resolute/Unleash

I am extremely conservative when it comes to my CC breaker. I will never use it unless: 

A) My resolve bar is full. The reason you break  CC  is because you NEED to be back in the fight or whatever, but what's the point of breaking a CC if you can just get  CC 'd again? By breaking the last stun that gives you full resolve, you break that stun and then also are immune to stuns for the full duration that your resolve bar is full. It's maximizing the resolve mechanic (however broken it may be, we still have to deal with it).

B) My healer buddy is for sure going to die unless I help him. This one is pretty straight forward. If I get CC'd and don't have the time to wait it out without my healer buddy dying, then I'll break it and help him out. Simple enough.

C) They are FOR SURE going to cap the door/node. Usually when I get CC'd guarding a door/node I will just wait it out since there's no CC that lasts long enough to keep you stunned through the duration of the cap (except saps which we'll get to). Basically let them CC you and try to cap all they want, the longer they're doing that the longer they're not doing anything else that's actually productive like dpsing or healing. This kind of goes back to point A where if they CC you and start capping and you break it and then their friend CC's you again then you could lose the cap. Let them CC you once and if they  CC  you again, and therefore give you full resolve, break it and interrupt the cap (this is how you deal with saps - don't break the first one or they'll do it again and cap on you).

D) Some other really important reason where you need to do something ASAP. Maybe you're CC'd but need to break it to CC them back so they can't interrupt your team's cap or something like that. Rare, but you'll know when you have to do it.

Other than those scenarios I always wait out CC's. There's just no reason not to. If none of the above are happening why exactly do you need to be back in the battle immediately? You don't! Just relax, move your camera around and plan what you'll be doing when you're out.

Extras

Spoiler

Ok so, I’m a Defensive Guardian because it’s the best fit for my play group, I chose the Defense/Vigilance hybrid because I want to fill more of a control/support role, I’ve gotten all my gear perfectly remodded for optimal performance (or working on it), and I know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing and how to accomplish it. What else? Gadgets and extras!

V-1 Seismic Grenade - Extremely useful and a must for ranked PvP. It's like a mini, ranged, Awe. Too good to pass up. You can have an alt go Cybertech and Scavenging and craft the V-1 grenades quickly and cheaply. You can get the higher numbered grenades too but all they do is a little more damage, although all you're using it for is the mezz.

Exotech Fortitude Stim - The best stim. While the Rakata reusable stims are more convenient, if you want to be the best these are the stims you need to be using.

Warzone Adrenal - Increases you survivability even more. A must have as well, although you can possibly skimp on them or buy them in low quantities while saving up comms for your gear. 

Warzone Medpac - I find the Warzone Medpac to be superior to the Rakata Medpac for a few reasons. First, you get to keep the health that it gives you. I can't tell you how many times I thought I was doing fine after using the Rakata Medpac and then when it and Enure wore off I was at 1 HP. Your fights are usually long which means the boost will usually end before you die. Secondly, the Warzone Medpac heals you for a percentage of your total HP, which I, being the connoisseur of HP that I am, love. You can combo this with Enure to make your max health inflated and then use the Warzone Medpac to heal for a ridiculous amount. Most importantly though is that you get to keep the health that you gain, which makes long fights easier.

Datacrons - Ugh, this was the worst thing ever but needs to be done to maximize your stats. You only need to get the strength and endurance datacrons.

Companion Affection - Again, this was awful but needed to be done for max stats. Gaining max affection with T-7 yields a passive 1% buff to your endurance, and gaining max affection with Doc yields a passive 1% buff to your healing.

Fin

Spoiler

Ok so, I’m a Defensive Guardian because it’s the best fit for my play group, I chose the Defense/Vigilance hybrid because I want to fill more of a control/support role, I’ve gotten all my gear perfectly remodded for optimal performance (or working on it), I know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing and how to accomplish it, and I've gotten all my gadgets and extras! I'm done right? Yes! Ugh, fine what else do... wait what? Really? That's it? Yep! Now comes the hard part - do it. Now that you have a good theoretical grasp on what you're supposed to be doing and why, it's time to put it into action and see if you're up to the task. Choose a couple of things from the guide that you really want to focus on improving upon (taunting a lot more and making sure you stay with your healer buddy) and just really work on improving that aspect of your game for a while. Once you feel like it's second nature pick another couple of things (Guardian Leap more and make sure to look for Dispatch opportunities) and repeat the process. Eventually you'll get it. Don't get discouraged if you feel like it's tough, because it is. Just make sure you really are trying your hardest and making improvements and after a while it'll get easier.

Ok... wow.. this guide is ridiculously long. Well, hope you enjoyed the read and learned a thing or two. I plan on releasing a War Zone guide with specific tips about how to play each War Zone optimally, complete with screen shots and Videos for each one, sometime in the next week or so. After that I want to try and set up a night where I hop on my Twitch.tv stream and answer questions for you guys for a few hours. Until then win, etc.

Ladispute

<Watchmen>

Edit: Please register before posting so that I can respond to you directly. Thank you!

Edit: Stickied on the SWTOR forums! http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=509647

Edit: Video released: http://watchmen.activeboard.com/t50388141/video-the-super-tank-ladispute/