Trying to decide on a Tank class

[hythos]

I'm try'n to decide between a Guardian or a Vanguard.
I've tanked with a Warrior, Paladin, and Druid -
and found the warrior to be the most survivable (but possibly because it was most familiar), and the Paladin to be the easiest to maintain control.


How well can a Vanguard tank against melee? Aren't they mostly a ranged-tank?
Which would be most effective in my group of RL friends?



I'm not exactly looking for a similar play-style to WoW's classes, just wanting to know which would be most useful (not referring to FOTM) between a Guardian or Vanguard.
I'll keep look'n for videos on either, in the mean-while...
Thanks-

[Raeli]

Vanguards have a lot of melee attacks, so you'll want to mostly be close anyway when tanking.

Guardians are pretty melee based and only have a couple of ranged attacks.

Think of Vanguards a little mroe similar to Pallys - you have a lot of ranged attacks, but you still want to be up close.

[nyoan]

They both have strengths and weaknesses. Here are a few pointers:

• The vanguard is NOT a ranged tank is the sense that you can be 30m away from mobs and tank them. You need to be within 5-10 meters of mobs to use your tanking abilities. You even have abilities to pull mobs to you. You also have a storm ability to run towards mobs. The vanguard has no problem with melee fights because they operate within the melee zone more or less. They get up in your face and bash it in with their rifle. However, they do have several ranged attacks that make pinging adds easier.
• The guardian is more rooted in one spot. They have mobility helping abilities such as force leap to get into combat, and tend to want to gather enemies around and use close-range abilities.
• Resource wise, the trooper uses ammo which is a mechanic that recharges slower or faster depending on how much you have left. The more ammo you spend, the slower it recharges. So, playing a trooper is a balancing act of keeping ammo between 50%-100%. I love it myself, and enjoy the playstyle it supports.
• The guardian works on a focus system. Certain attacks build focus (like force leap) and other attacks burn focus (like your AoE saber attack you get early). The guardian is all about keeping track of what is giving you focus and what is taking it away, and managing to find a balance between the two. Its like a more cerebral rage system that you see in some MMOs.

As far as which will benefit your friends more: that depends. If all of them are going to be force users, you going vanguard will give them less competition for loot, which is good. But as far as one being a clear-cut winner--there isn't really one. And, any clear-cut winner at this point is not going to keep that status long considering Bioware has mentioned repeatedly that they want all tanks to be just as effective as the others. (And, on a side note: if you've heard shadows are avoidance tanks...they aren't really. They are just as viable as the other two).

[Mosc]

Just as a quick reply...

All tanks tank primarily in melee range. All of your strong attacks to keep aggro will be 10m or less in range. As a trooper you'll be a normal melee range tank but you just happen to have some ranged attacks that you can use on occasion, you'll want to live in melee though.

Each tank class has a different feel due to the resource system you'll use and the way the attack animations look, so which class you choose will be personal preference really. All tanks should be equally capable of tanking anything in game.

[GSpotFrenzy]

As it stands right now.

Shadows have the best threat right now, both single target and aoe

Vanguards are probably the best all around tank in terms of tools at their disposal to get the job done (charge and pull, long ranged aoe etc)

Guardians suck. Their threat is garbage, and they don't have the tools needed to deal with all the ranged packs in the game. AOE tanking for them is running around in a big circle trying to hit everything and then taunting what they can't hang onto. I'm playing a SW Jugg right now at 50 and it's painful.

[hythos]

Awesome, thank you guys!

I'll try both through 20 (probably this weekend), though I most likely will stay with a Vanguard for several reasons.

[Holiknight]

Was really hoping to play a Guardian as a Tank spec for my guild. Should I go for it and hope that BioWare fixes the threat issues... or roll Shadow Kinetic Combat?