7.8 Shield Specialist / Shield Tech SWTOR Guide

Using guard effectively will help keep the boss's threat on you and your teammates alive.  In Flash points, we typically guard the healer to keep them safe from mobs.  In operations, we give it to the top DPS player.  You should get a sense of who is the strongest dps player of your group and guard them.  They take reduced damage and will build less threat regardless of how close they are to you.  You can help the healers as well.  Consider swapping your guard to a player that is taking damage/low on health.

As you are preparing to start the pull and before/as you initiate the ready check, begin preloading your shoulder cannon.  Take extra care not to accidentally fire your shoulder cannon and start the fight.  Always check your buff bar to be sure it needs to be loaded, and you have not already done it.

Our basic ranged attack has a Chance to proc Ion Cell (says 15% in tool tip, but I find it pretty consistent when spamming) It will also keep Ion cell refreshed as well as 

Shockstrike will activate Ion Cell and Proc's Ion Storm and enables use of High Impact Bolt.  Shockstrike should be used on cooldown.

Dealing damage with the above will trigger Ion Cell, putting the shock debuff on the target.

This is not a clickable ability, rather a buff we gain as we use our abilities.  We need 3 to Proc and fire Energy/Heat Blast.  With the Thermal Screen Tactical, we can hold up to 6 stacks of Power/Heat Screen.  With this tactical, we will never have an issue with having enough screens up to fire Energy/Heat Blast on Cool Down.  Each power screen gives us 1% increase to shield absorb.

This ability has a base 14" CD, but building more power Screens, or refreshing them, reduces its CD by 1 second.  While you can hold a Proc'd Energy Blast and wait until right before a spike to fire it, you build charges and can fire them fast enough, It's just as well to fire it on CD, unless you know something big is coming you need to time out.  Best of all, the ability is off the GCD, so keep firing other abilities while hitting this one.  Using this ability increases your Shield Absorb by 30%.

Instantly fires an AoE blast at up to 10 m.  Does damage, but no buffs/debuffs.  This ability has a chance to proc Ion/Fire Storm, but it will not build power/heat screens.  It's a great AoE filler, but it has little other utility.

Channeled, with a slight increase in utility against weak enemies (knocks them down).  You can move while it channels.  I don’t use this against ops bosses, unless adds come in that I can knock down.  It also has a chance to proc Ion/Fire Storm, but it will not build power/heat Screens.

This is our spam filler, but take caution as this ability eats energy cells rapidly.  If it has been proc'd by Static Surge (charging in) it's our top priority filler.  Use it as often as possible, but watch your energy cells.  If you go below 50% without having Recharge Cells/Vent Heat available, stop spamming, or you are going to have energy problems.

Explosive Surge works exactly like Ion Pulse and is buffed by Static Surge as well.  It should be substituted in place of Ion Pulse in AoE situations.  It suffers from the same energy consumption that Ion Pulse does, so watch the spam.

It's easy to run out of energy as a Vanguard/Power Tech Tank if you are spamming too many Ion Pulse/Flame Burst, for an example.  If you catch yourself running low, or are just "emptying the mag" use the above to make your next ability recharge 50 cells and get back in the fight quickly.  No one likes spamming hammer shot to recharge.

Flat increase to Damage Reduction of 25% for 15 seconds.  This one I consider my main defensive for high damaging attacks.  It levels out the damage we take impressively.  Pairing it with a discharge of Energy/Heat blast will have us taking very little damage over its duration.

This is one of those great offensive and defensive cool downs.  Battle focus becomes a very powerful defensive with the "Soldier's Grit" passive at lvl 68, this becomes a 35% increase to defense chance.  I routinely pair this with a Shield Adrenal or Riot Gas.  With Riot Gas, we essentially push the Defense chance to 50%.

Technically not a defensive, this is a self-heal.  When you activate it above 35% health, it will heal you for 2% HP for 60".  As soon as your HP dips below 35%, it heals you for 35% and ends.  As such, I find its use best in the 50-70% HP range to take full benefit of its 60" of healing.  I find this ability to be a much weaker version of the guardian's focused defensives and while it heals more than the shadow's battle readiness, it lacks the 25% defense chance that the shadow's self-heal version has.  I see this as the weakest of the three tank's self-heal abilities.  Do not rely on this to save your life.

Very straight forward, this ability Increase's shield absorption by 30% for 6 seconds.  You should be using this on cool down unless you have a specific reason to hold it for incoming burst damage.  This should be up about two thirds of the time when tanking.

This debuffs any foes inside its effects, reduces their accuracy by 15% (essentially +15% to Defense chance)

Immunity to push/pull/knock down and +75% move.  Helpful for avoiding damage/cleaves/conals ect.  Also, not technically a defensive cool down, but in my mind it is.  Hold the line can save you from being pushed off platforms (revan push/pull) or let you get out of a blast circle that would cause damage.  It will also prevent/break you from being slowed or rooted.

Protects allies in the area it detonates (around 7 m).  It reflects the next single target attack they take.  Note, this is also our AoE Taunt, so be sure not to use this if you are currently the off tank.

This one does a lot.  Our Legendary (supercommando Package) and our tactical both buff this ability.  This ability increase your armor by 40% per stack, stacking up to 5 times (200% armor increase).  That’s about an increase of 5% Damage reduction per stack or a 25% Damage reduction.  This ability also applies a small heal to you.  Furthermore, it resets the Cool Down of Energy Blast and immediately builds 6 Power Screens (6% shield absorb).  To top it all off, this also applies an absorb shield to you that absorbs 1.62 million damage for 3" (not long, but can soak up massive damage hits).  It's a staple of ability of the class and with only a 60" cool down, it should be used often.

Your Taunt should be used when you need to multiply your threat ahead of the DPS.  It's situational and can happen at different times depending on DPS composition/Experience Level.  As a Novice Tank, Taunt early into a fight.  As you get a better feel for the role, try delaying your Taunt after Several ability activations/channels to max your threat multiplication.

I call this an AoE taunt as it works same as "taunt" but effects all targets w/n 15 m of you.  A common Strategy for single target fights is to "taunt" use a few abilities "Sonic Missile" use a few abilities and then "taunt" Again as a "Triple Taunt".  Sure Fire way to be the top threat