Darth Hater

Howdy all... I've been playing a BH Shieldtech during the beta weekends.  Didn't get far up in levels, but I was wondering if anyone had taken a BH up to 50 with the tanking spec?  Or is it easier to go BH DPS spec then respec after the level grind?  Any info would be greatly appricated.

Great thing about leveling as tank spec is the fact that you can very easily find people to do flashpoints with. As for speed of leveling, yeah it's not the best specially when you get your healing companion. Shieldtech's are very stong in PVP too, yout might not be able to 3 shot people like snipers but you can harass like no other.

I haven't personally made it to 50 but I would imagine with the companion system, it could go either way. Especially if you're doing a fair share of heroic quests and flashpoints, as a tank you will level quickly that way. As a pure dps you could take Mako along and get your heals to reduce downtime and hasten questing. But just remember, as of beta close, there were no AC respecs.

I think he ment respec within the powertech tree. But yeah Bio has a point regarding heroic2+ quests, as a tank im sure you could even solo 2+ quests at your level, but people would always welcome a tank during leveling. 

Personally I will be playing healing spec when leveling just couse we are gonna be a group of 3 guys playing together.

I also found it easy as a healer to kill elites 3 levels higher then me with a companion that I healed up and dps'ed down the target he was tanking. I would imagine it will be similar for you as a tank (role reversal).

I plan to level in tank spec. If you are concerned about kill speed as a tank you could always just run a DPS companion, which the two you get after Mako are. I really don't think a tank with a DPS companion would kill any slower than the normal DPS with a healer companion would. Plus you get invaluable experience in learning each tanking ability as you get it, instead of having to learn all of them at once at max level.

Good points...forgot about the advantages of the companion during questing.  In fact I did complete several 2+ quest with Mako healing, but just figured that all the classes were doing it.

Nah, other classes don't have it as easy. Agent's first companion, Kaliyo, is more DPS(with a bit of tank that was hindered by her bugged shield generator in beta weekend), and with no heals on her(and none if you went Sniper AC instead of Operative), it was fairly hard to do. Other classes would run into similar problems with their first companion being DPS. BHs have the lucky synergy of a healing companion as the first, that I don't think anyone else gets.

My main will be a BH and I'm sure I will go straight DPS cause I am man enough to admit I just suck at tanking...lol

I've been told by people who have done the beta that at lower levels starting out with a healer isn't that bad because you still do a good amount of DPS. Even after you pick your AC and start leveling as a tank, you should be alright until you get a companion that fits with your tank aspect better.

Your first pet is a dps/healer hybrid, so leveling as a tank I would imagine to be easy.

I really dont have that much of a porblem leveling as a tank.....im like 3 levels ahead of my current class quest.....so its not really a concern.....doing flashpoints gives you great xp and some amazing gear....it helps

With Mako leveling as a tank should be peasy sauce. Heroic 2 quests should be possible if you play carefully, however finding another player should be rather easy for that too. And the awesome AoE of BH in general is just that, awesome. It will make killing stuff faster than some DPS specs.

My BH is a Sheildtech, and Mako never leaves my side. Now I have invested in his gear while leveling, which has made me really hard to kill unless i pull more NPCs then i can handle (which is usually more then 7). I have a tone of Orange Tank gear which i keep upgrading with comidations, and in {vP i only ever really get like 2 kills a match, but I'm really hard to kill.

The one thing that really upset me though is that both DPS trees are melee combat. What i mean is most of the attacks are focused around your flamethrower and other Close Combat attacks. I HATE THIS! Mostly because of the whole FPS issue in warzones. But still a warning, if u want to go tank spec, both of the DPS trees are ment for melee combat, so don't do it if u want to have a duel sec for crazy deeps. As for me, i will be having 2 sheildtech specs, one for PvP and one for PvE!

Im level 32 with my shieldtech, and find it ridicoulously easy to level, i never have to stop t use rechange and reload. Only level in this spec if you plan to tank at endgame though!

I agree that it is very easy to level as a tank spec as a Powertech, or any other tanking class.  It may take a bit longer to kill mobs, but you will make up for that with less downtime., especially with a healing companion.

I do agree with Dex though that I was dissapointed that Powertech are more melee oriented, or rather close quarter combat oriented.  As a class that uses a ranged weapon I would have thought that I would have more ranged abilities when I chose Powertech on launch.  With that knowledge now though, I make sure I tell any aspiring Powertechs I know prior to selecting an advanced class that they will be focusing on close quarter combat.