The Church of Alvis

This is coming out of a conversation I had with Timmah tonight about tanking and stat optimization. This base info applies to all tank classes, the chart posted will be for the tank spec of the class I post or re-post in.

The way to read the chart is as follows...
Total stat budget is = adding all of the shield, absorb and defense ratings on all of your gear. Current tier gear will get you somewhere in the 1400-1600 range most likely. Due to the way the stats are applied to gear you will probably end up with more shield rating than is optimal only because you cannot trade shield for either defense or absorb. If you have any questions, please ask.

total defense shield absorb
1400 314 586 500
1500 335 634 531
1600 358 681 561
1700 382 727 590
1800 409 772 619
1900 435 817 647
2000 463 862 675

Self buffed (missing smuggler and knight)

Total = Defense + Shield + Absorb
1332= 484 + 487 + 361

So looks like I should be shedding defense for mostly absorb and some shielding?

But that seems wrong because I'm already at 19.58% (20.48% with stim) Defense, 50.97% shield chance and 51.76% absorb and I've read

Absorption (50%) = Shield (50%) > Defense (15%) >= Endurance > Aim >= Accuracy (110%)

http://www.noxxic.com/swtor/pve/trooper ... nd-details

When I start applying stacks of power screen (up to 4) my absorption goes to 59.76% (core number doesn't increase as it falls under skills and buffs part of number)

So I'm confused as to where I should be going. Increasing Absorb and shield, shedding defense, or pumping up endurance?

The mathy post is right here that I got all of this from.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=567164

The guy who did it created the tables with the intent of minimizing squishiness. And especially for the VGs that would mean propping up shield and absorb because your armor is so strong to minimize your squishiness means you actually getting hit a little more and letting your armor take the brunt of it. IE. Say your defense is 5% lower, so over 100 attacks 5 more will get through, but of those 5 you will take less total damage due to armor and shielding from those attacks by stacking more shield/absorb than you would take by having those 5 attacks miss completely. It seems on some levels counter-intuitive but at the same time since VGs are designed to be mitigation tanks who just stand there and take a horrendous beating and laugh in it's face there is some logic there as well.

So essentially yes, you should be trading defense for absorb. Your shield will go up naturally as you get better enhances/implants/earpiece since you can't trade shield for def or absorb, only accuracy or other threat stats which shouldn't be an issue.

I'm swapping out defense augment for absorb and shield ones now.

Currently I am raid buffed at 1367(stat budget) = 316(def) 586(shield) 465(absorb).

(Swapped out rakata implant for a black hole one after last night)

Work in progress:

Current Stat Budget = 1817(raid buffed)
Def 721
Shield Rating 801
Absorb Rating 295

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=616779

Things have changed.