Long story short I pre-ordered SWTOR when it came out, and let's just say it failed miserably to live up to the hype at the time. Now that it's gone F2P I've thought of giving it another shot, if for no other reason than to try the stories out and have something else to do. I almost always tank in MMOs and I've narrowed my choices down to (I think) a Bounty Hunter or a Jedi Shadow/Sith Assassin (not sure if Republic/Imperial yet). That said, however:
1) Which tank is considered to be better suited for group play? At this point I'm not sure how much, if any, group play I plan to do but just trying to get the information for future reference. Some older (I think?) guides extolled the virtues of the Shadow/Assassin as the go-to tank, but this probably changed at some point. How would each of these types of classes play as a tank? It seems like the Bounty Hunter's tank spec has both ranged and melee abilities?
2) On the flip side, for DPS which of them is considered better and how do they play? The Shadow/Assassin is like a Rogue I'm guessing, sneaking up and bursting?
3) How is the story for each? I remember doing a few introductory quests on everything when the game came out; the "Great Hunt" and the stuff with Nemro the Hutt (I think it was Nemro, could have been the other Hutt) with the Bounty Hunter, being a slave and having the overseer be a total dbag as the Inquisitor, and some vague stuff with Twi'leks and cannibals as the Consular, but that was all I ever saw of the story. Which of the three has the better story overall? I'm leaning towards Sith just because at some point you get a "Darth" title