SWTOR 7.0 Defense Guardian PvP Guide and Best Builds by Valeк

This is an in-depth SWTOR Defense Guardian 7.0 Tank guide focusing exclusively on PvP, written by Valek. It’s suitable for beginner players as well as veterans, who seek to learn how to improve their performance!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction to Defense Guardian in PvP
• Abilities Explained
• Ability Tree Choices
• Gearing and Stats Priorities
• Best Defense Guardian PvP Builds in 7.0
• Openers, Rotations, Priorities
• PvP Tanking Tips, Tricks and Recommendations
• About the Author

Introduction to Defense Guardian in PvP

Defense Guardian is a hard hitting, high defensive tank that utilizes both lightsaber and force attacks to deal damage. In this guide I will outline the basic builds and playstyle for the class while elaborating on why I believe they are strong in the current patch. Defense utilizes multiple ways of utility that can help a team in PvP while having great defensives, offensives, and peel mechanics making it an excellent choice to pick up for the Legacy of the Sith expansion!

Common Terms

Hardstun
A stun that will not break on damage

Whitebar/Resolve
After a certain amount of stuns have been used against an enemy, their resolve bar (a bar you can see next to the character portrait that becomes purple when a stun or pushback ability has been used against them) will become white indicating they can’t be stunned or pushed until that bars color is reset. 

Mez or CC
A stun that can be broken by damage.

AoE
Known as Area of Effect, this is what any ability that can hit more than one enemy is called. I.e. Force Storm, Suppressive Fire, Smash

DoTs
Damage over Time, any ability that leaves a debuff applying damage after an initial hit. i.e. Affliction, Corrosive Dart, Retractable Blade

DCD
Defensive Cooldown, this is any ability that will mitigate or shield/absorb any incoming damage.

HP
Hit points, also known as your health.

Tank Tunnel
Being the primary focus of enemy players as a tank despite better targets being available. 

Roots
Any ability that impairs your movement without applying resolve to your resolve bar.

DR/Damage Reduction
An effect some abilities can apply to reduce incoming damage on yourself/teammates or outgoing damage on enemy players.

Peel
Using stuns or roots to help control an enemy player from attacking a friendly target.

Damage Types

There are two different types of damage, white damage which is any damage that comes from your weapon, and yellow damage which is any attack that does not come from your weapon.

White damage is only one type of damage, but yellow damage has subcategories such as Kinetic, Energy, and Internal damage.

You can read the Guide to damage types in SWTOR by Endonae for in-depth analysis and explanation of how damage types work in the game.

Defense Abilities Explained

Let’s talk about the abilities you will be using as Defense. I will list off all the abilities as well as a description of how you should be using them. (Note all cooldown timers are based on having 0 alacrity. Different abilities will have different cooldown timers with increased alacrity.)

Damage Abilities

Strike

Generates 2 focus and inflicts weapon damage with a series of quick melee attacks. Strikes with both weapons if dual wielding. (Basic Attack)

This is your basic attack, you will need to use this if you are out of rage. It generates 2 rage per hit.

Warding Strike

Increases damage reduction and shield absorption by 3% for 20 seconds, generates 6 focus, and deals weapon damage to the target with a series of quick melee attacks | Replaces Sundering Assault. (12 second cooldown)

This is your main rage builder for Defense as well as giving a small amount of damage reduction. This is an ability at the top of your ability priority list. Maintaining focus using this ability will help you be able to dish out damage.

Guardian Slash

Slashes The target beneath a powerful stroke, dealing weapon damage, enabling Riposte, and impairing the target for 45 seconds. Impaired targets deal 5% less damage with Force and tech attacks. If you are protected by your Warding Strike, Guardian Slash damages up to 7 additional nearby enemies for the same amount. Does not damage sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemies. This attack knocks down all affected standard and weak enemies. Generates a high amount of threat. (12 second cooldown, costs 4 focus)

This is your big hitter, this is going to be where a lot of your damage comes from. Not only a single target hit but also an AoE hit and is a good way to get in cleave damage. In the description it mentions the ability does not damage sleeping, lifted, or incapacitated enemies – this is only the aoe on mezzes that break on damage. You should be using Guardian Slash each time it is available. 

Cyclone Slash

Slashes up to 8 enemies within 5 meters in front of you for weapon damage and inflicts the targets with Trauma, which reduces the healing received from all sources by 20% for 6 seconds. (Costs 2 focus, Chosen in skill tree)

A choice in the skill tree for Defense, this is a good option to pick up if you want to be doing a lot of AoE damage as well as spreading a lot of Trauma. 

Force Sweep

Strikes the target and up to 8 enemies within 5 meters, dealing kinetic damage. Stuns weak and standard enemies for 2 seconds. (15 second cooldown, costs 1 focus)

One of your many AoE abilities, Force Sweep applies the Unsteady debuff to reduce accuracy by 5% on all targets hit by Smash. Using this constantly on multiple enemy targets will most certainly make their life more annoying by having a higher chance of missing their attack.

Blade Storm

Uses the Force to project a wave of energy toward the target, dealing kinetic damage. In addition, standard and weak enemies are knocked senseless, stunned for 4 seconds. (12 second cooldown, costs 3 focus)

Using Blade Storm applies a small absorption shield on use. When you parry, deflect, shield, or resist an attack there is a 50% chance the Blade Barrage proc will be applied, this will reduce the amount of focus needed to use Blade Storm which is a very nice perk as you’ll be using Blade Storm often.

Force Leap

Jumps to a distant target, dealing damage with the main-hand weapon, immobilizing the target for 2 seconds and interrupting the target’s current action. Builds 3 focus. Cannot be used against targets in cover. (15 second cooldown).

Your basic gap closer, you will use this ability anytime you need to get to your target right away.

Force Push

Deals kinetic damage, knocks the target back several meters, and knocks the target down for 2 seconds. Force Push immediately finishes the cooldown of Force Leap. (1 minute cooldown).

One of the Guardians most unique and useful abilities in PvP, Force Push can be used to separate targets from one another, i.e. separating a tank from a healer with guard. Force Push is a unique ability as it is a knockback, but also sort of a mini stun in a sense that the affected player has to go through the animation of being knocked back and standing up. During this animation abilities cannot be used. 

Blade Barrage

Performs a series of lightsaber attacks that deal weapon damage. Strikes both weapons if dual wielding. (18 second cooldown).

You will primarily be using this ability when you don’t have any rage to spare, if you need to root someone if you use the Overwhelming Slashes utility, or are lining up a burst combo. Blade Barrage applies the Defensive Slashes buff which increases defense chance by 2% and stacks up to 3 times.

Slash

Slashes the target for weapon damage and inflicts the target with Trauma, which reduces the healing received from all sources for 20% for 6 seconds.

This will be your most used ability, anytime you don’t have Crushing Blow, Aegis Assault, Smash, or Force Scream, this is your filler. Note that the application of Trauma is strictly only for Defense, none of the other classes or disciplines that use Vicious Slash has this feature.

Dispatch

Throws the main-hand lightsaber at a target, dealing weapon damage. Only usable on targets at or below 30% max health. (10 second cooldown, costs 3 rage).

Basic execute, always use when a target is below 30% health off cooldown.

Riposte

Ripostes against the target for weapon damage. Cannot be parried, dodged, or missed. Retaliation can only be used after successfully defending against a melee or ranged attack or after one of your melee attacks is parried, dodged, or misses. (6 second cooldown, costs 1 rage) – Riposte is an important ability for Defense, after using Guardian Slash, Riposte becomes free not using any focus. As Defense Riposte doesn’t respect the GCD (Global Cooldown) so you can use this at the same time as any ability and both will hit the target. Saber Throw.

Throws the main hand lightsaber at a distant target, inflicting weapon damage and building 3 focus. (30 second cooldown) – Saber Throw can be a very useful ability when you need to build focus, or if you use the Throwing Arm tactical you can apply a 70% accuracy debuff from 30 meters away.

Stuns/CC

Hilt Bash

Smacks the target for kinetic damage, stunning it for 4 seconds. This ability generates a high amount of threat. (1 minute cooldown)

One of your two stuns, also called hardstuns, use anytime you need to control a target or set up a killable target for friendly DPS. 

Force Stasis

Subdues the target, stunning it for 4 seconds and generating moderate threat. Deals kinetic damage and builds 3 focus over the duration. This ability can be channeled while moving. (1 minute cooldown)

Your second hardstun, you can use this directly after your Hilt Bash to stun even longer, but will apply a whitebar.

Awe

Confounds up to 8 nearby enemies in fear, preventing all action for up to 6 seconds. Damage ends the effect prematurely. In addition, targets affected by Awe deal 15% less melee and ranged damage for 10 seconds after the confounding effect ends. Targets immune to the confounding effect will immediately suffer from this damage reducing effect. (1 minute cooldown, Chosen in skill tree)

This is your Mez/CC, you might see Awe is definitely one of the most useful abilities Guardians have. You will want to use this anytime you need to remove a player out of a fight for the duration of the CC, whether it’s a healer, or a DPS doing a lot of damage. 

Defensive Cooldowns

Focused Defense

Empowers you with 12 charges of Focused Defense, lasting up to 15 seconds. Whenever you take damage a charge of Focused Defense is consumed to heal you. This ability can be used while stunned or otherwise controlled but cannot be used while above 70%. (Base 2 minute cooldown, 1:30 with Through Passion utility)

This is your main dcd, this will always be the first dcd you will use as Defense. It is the second fastest cooldown Defense has, and is almost the most valuable. Anytime you are getting close to around 25-30% hp you will want to use this ability which will heal you to full.

Saber Ward

Raises a lightsaber ward, increasing melee and ranged defenses by 50% and absorbing 25% of the damage taken from Force and tech attacks. Lasts 12 seconds. (2:30 cooldown)

With the tactical Grit Teeth, this will be your second most used ability. Anytime there could be a lot of damage incoming it is a good time to use Saber Ward. This is a dcd you will want to use pretty early after your first Enraged Defense if you are using the Grit Teeth tactical. 

Saber Reflect

Reflects all direct single target ranged, force, and tech attacks back to the attacker for 5 seconds. The damage done by each reflect is capped. In addition, Saber Reflect generates a high amount of threat on all engaged enemies within 30 meters when activated. (1 minute cooldown, Chosen in skill tree)

This is a dcd that isn’t very useful as Defense unless you are being tunneled. In my opinion this is something you will rarely take compared to the other choices you have in this branch of the utility tree.

Blade Blitz

Madly dash forward 20 meters, dealing weapon damage to enemies in your path and increasing your defense chance by 100% while dashing. Can be used while immobilized and purges movement-impairing effects. (35 second cooldown)

In the same branch as Saber Reflect and Intimidating Roar, Mad Dash can be a good pick up if you are constantly being rooted and have no need to take Intimidating Roar.

Warding Call

Reduces all damage taken by 40% for 10 seconds. (2:30 cooldown).

Warding Call is a  DR defensive with a long cooldown timer. You will want to use this cooldown as one of your last priorities due to its longer cooldown.

Enure

Temporarily increases your maximum health by 30% for 20 seconds and removes all cleanseable effects. When the effect ends, the health is lost. (1 minute cooldown).

Enure is a temporary health increase. It is best paired with Warzone Medpac due to Enure increasing your entire health pool, your Warzone Medpac will heal for more. Of course you won’t be able to use Medpac each time you use Enure in the same fight. But besides that, using Enure close to having and maintaining 30% hp left could result in you dying instantly when the ability ends which is something you will need to watch out for and try your best to survive if that is the case. Enure also has a cleansing effect that can cleanse debuffs such as roots and slows.

Resolute

Purges incapacitating and movement-impairing effects. (Base 2 minutes cooldown, 1:30 with Payback utility)

This is your stun breaker, as a tank this is an important ability to know when to use. Breaking properly and applying guard can save the life of a teammate. Typically you will want to use your breaker before your teammate receives a lot of damage. Guarding burst classes such as AP Pt and MM Sniper is imperative. 

Warzone Medpac

Immediately restores 35% of maximum health. Only usable in Player versus Player environments. Only usable once per fight.

Warzone Adrenal

Increases damage reduction by 15% for 15 seconds while fighting other players. Only usable in Player versus Player environments. (3 minute cooldown) 

Interrupt

Force Kick

icks the target, interrupting its current action and preventing that ability from being used for the next 4 seconds. (12 second cooldown)

Your interrupt ability, use anytime an enemy player is casting an ability you can interrupt.

Important Tank Abilities

Taunt

Taunts the target, forcing it to attack you for 6 seconds. Player targets deal 30% less damage when attacking anyone other than you for 6 seconds. (15 second cooldown).

You will want to use this when a single target is doing any sort of damage. In all honesty this is an ability I use on any DPS doing any sort of damage every time Taunt is off cooldown. Thought I will note at the start of fights, whether it is Regular Warzones or Ranked, most DPS will use OCS (Offense Cooldowns) at the start, abilities such as Explosive Fuel for Powertech, Laze Target for Sniper, or Polarity Shift for Sorcerer. At the start of fights it can be very useful to taunt these specific classes using OCDS to reduce the amount of burst damage they do.

Challenging Call

Taunts all enemies within 15 meters, forcing them to attack you for 6 seconds. Player targets deal 30% less damage for 6 seconds when attacking anyone other than you. (45 second cooldown).

Exact same thing as Taunt, but is an AoE that can hit multiple enemies in its radius.

Threatening Focus

Instantly generates 6 focus, reduces the cooldown of Taunt and Challenging Call by 5 seconds and damages all taunted targets around you. (45 second cooldown).

This is a new ability to Defense in 7.0. This ability was called Combat Focus in 6.0, but all disciplines of Guardian have their own unique ability now. Threatening Focusis a nice addition to Defense, as using it can reduce the cooldown of both your taunts while damaging enemies you have taunted upon use. Depending on the situation you will want to use this after using an AoE taunt to get the most out of its damaging effect. In ranked however it is better to use this as a root breaker which you can take in the utility tree.

Guardian Leap

Leaps to a friendly target, reducing their threat by a moderate amount and reducing damage taken by 20% for 6 seconds. (20 second cooldown).

Another important tank ability for Defense, Guardian Leaping to a target with guard can massively increase their damage reduction from enemy players. Using this on a friendly target without guard is also very useful, as sometimes interceding can be enough to help minimize the incoming damage without having to apply guard. 

Guard

While active, the guarded player takes 5% less damage and generates 25% less threat. In addition, so long as you remain within 15 meters of the guarded player, 50% of all incoming damage from enemy players is transferred back to you.

The bread and butter of being a tank, applying guard to friendly targets to help mitigate damage they will receive. This is your most important job in PvP, guarding the correct person at the correct time can provide immense advantages to your team. Looking for key abilities and enemy movement is the must here, and I will go more in depth with this in the General Tanking Tips and Tricks section of the guide. Trauma – Reduces healing received from all sources by 20% for 6 seconds. – Trauma is not an ability, but a debuff that your Vicious Slash and Sweeping Slash apply. This debuff is important to apply to all enemies to reduce their incoming healing.

Defense Passives

Like any Class Discipline, Defense comes with a slew of very good passives. Here I will list all of the passives as well as their effect.

Soresu Form

Utilize a Defensive Lightsaber form, increasing armor rating by 61.5%, damage reduction by 6%, shield chance by 15%, threat generation by 150%, and accuracy by 10%. While utilizing Soresu Form, all damage dealt is reduced by 10%, and all Assault abilities generate 1 less rage.

Dust Storm

Targets damaged by Force Sweep and Cyclone Slash become Unsteady. Unsteady targets have their melee and ranged accuracy reduced by 5% for 45 seconds. In addition, damage dealt by Blade Storm is increased by 40%.

Lunge

Riposte consumes 1 less focus and no longer causes a global cooldown. In addition, melee and ranged defense is increased by 3%.

Expeditious Protector

Increased armor rating by 15% and when your guarded target is attacked, your movement speed is increased by 30% for 6 seconds.

Blade Barrier

Activating Blade Storm grants Blade Barrier, which absorbs a small amount of damage. Lasts up to 10 seconds.

Abating Defense

Increases shield chance by 4% and reduces the cooldown of Saber Ward by 30 seconds.

Courage

Parrying, deflecting, shielding, or resisting an attack has a 50% chance to grant Revenge, reducing the rage consumed by your next Force Scream or Vicious Throw by 1. Lasts up to 12 seconds, and stacks up to 3 times.

Inner Peace

Increases the duration of Endure Pain by 10 seconds. Increases elemental and internal damage reduction by 5%.

Defensive Swings

Dealing damage with Ravage increases your defense chance by 2%. Stacks up to 3 times and lasts for 6 seconds.

Defense Ability Tree Choices

Level 23

Defensive Assault
Warding Strike increases your damage reduction by an additional 2% when it deals damage.

Antagonizing Assault
Warding Strike deals 50% more damage to taunted targets.

Marked Assault
Increases the damage, critical hit chance, and threat of Warding Strike by 20%.

Recommendation
In my opinion, none of these will have any real game changing effects. You can choose what you personally prefer here, but I think Marked Assault is the best choice to maximize damage output.

Level 27

Cyclone Slash
Slashes up to 8 enemies within 5 meters in front of you for weapon damage and inflicts the targets with Trauma, which reduces the healing received from all sources by 20% for 6 seconds.

Debilitating Slashes
Blade Blitz immobilizes the target for 3 seconds and generates 1 focus.

Blade Burst
Blade Storm does damage to additional enemies in a cove in front and slows them by 50% for 6 seconds.

Recommendation
Cyclone Slash is the best to take here to maximize damage and apply trauma, but if you are needing to control a target with roots Debilitating Slashes is a good choice. Blade Burst is probably the least useful skill you can pick up in this tree.

Level 39

Guardian Focus
Dealing damage with Guardian Slash while Warding Strike is active grants a barrier of protection to up to 8 allies within 10 meters for 6 seconds. (Unlisted effect of applying 10% DR to surrounding allies)

Critical Slash
Guardian Slash critical chance and threat generated is increased by 20% and its cooldown is reduced by one second each time it critically hits.

Crushing Mark
Guardian Slash deals 50% more damage to taunted targets.

Recommendation
Personally Critical Slash is the easy pick for me here to get the most damage, but all 3 of these can be good choices to use depending on what team composition you have. Guardian Focus can help surrounding teammates survive with the 10% DR applied to them but is really only useful if your team is made up of mostly melee. Crushing Mark is another good choice, but relies heavily on using Crushing Blow on taunted targets to make any real use of the effect which is not as efficient as Critical Slash in maximizing damage.

Level 43

Critical Defense
Critically hitting with direct attack reduces the cooldown of your Threatening Focus by 1 second. Threatening Focus purges movement impairing effects and increases your melee and ranged defense chance by 10% for 10 seconds.

Marked Focus
Dealing direct damage to taunted targets generates 1 focus. This effect can occur once every second. (This description is missing an effect, which heals you for 1% whenever you deal direct damage to taunted targets)

Thwart
Guardian Leap grants Thwart, increasing the damage dealt by your next melee ability by 20%. This effect lasts for 10 seconds. Additionally, reduces the cooldown of Guardian Leap by 5 seconds and reduces the threat and damage taken by an additional 10% each for the friendly target of Guardian Leap.

Recommendation
All good choices here, you could take any and be just fine. Personally I recommend taking Critical Defense as having Threatening Focus on a shorter cooldown for taunts, damage increase, and breaking roots. Marked Focus is similar to Crushing Mark in the previous tier, and relies solely on you attacking your taunted target. Thwart can be a good choice when you are not being rooted a lot and want to help protect your team a bit more while having a good buff of a 20% damage increase on your melee ability.

Level 51

Unyielding Justice
Increases the range of Blade Storm to 30 meters, but Blade Storm deals reduced damage beyond 10 meters. Additionally, Force Push deals 20% more damage and grants Unyielding Justice, allowing your next Blade Storm to deal full damage regardless of the distance from the target.

Battlefield Command
Getting attacked reduces the active cooldown of Force Leap by 1 second. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.

Defiance
You generate 4 focus when stunned, immobilized, put to sleep, or knocked around.

Recommendation
Similar to the previous branch, you could take any of these three and be completely fine. Personally I prefer to use Defiance to help keep my rage up. Battlefield Command is also equally as good of a pick as having Force Leap available more often as an interrupt and or gap closer can be good.

Level 64

War Master
Force Leap grants Unremitting, granting immunity to movement-impairing effects and effects that push or pull you around for 4 seconds. In addition, Force Leap enables your next Dispatch or Whirling Blade to be used against a target with any percentage of health.

Stalwart Defense
All damage is reduced by 30% while stunned.

Second Wind
Reduces the cooldown of Resolute by 30 seconds and causes Resolute to heal you for 10% of your maximum health when used.

Recommendation
Now this is where the important picks start to occur in the Defense utility tree. Second Wind is the best choice here, as having a short cooldown on your breaker can help protect your team when you are stunned. Stalwart defense is a good pick if you are having trouble surviving and need that extra damage reduction when you are stunned. Due to the changes in 7.0 a lot of stuns were removed from the game from some classes and are picked in the utility tree for others, this is why Stalwart Defense isn’t a must have anymore. War Master is the best choice here if you are wanting to do the most damage, but I highly recommend Second Wind in almost any PvP scenario, especially ranked. 

Level 68

Saber Reflect
Reflects all direct single target ranged, force, and tech attacks back to the attacker for 5 seconds. The damage done by each reflect is capped. In addition, Saber Reflect generates a high amount of threat on all engaged enemies within 30 meters when activated.

Awe
Confounds up to 8 enemies,  preventing all action for up to 6 seconds. Damage ends the effect prematurely. In addition, targets affected by Awe deal 15% less melee and ranged damage for 10 seconds after the confounding effect ends. Targets immune to the confounding effect will immediately suffer from this damage reducing effect.

Blade Blitz
Quickly rush forward 20 meters dealing a low amount of weapon damage to enemies in your path and increasing your defense chance by 100% while blitzing. Can be used while immobilized and purges movement-impairing effects when activated. 

Recommendation
Another set of important choices, as Defense Awe is the best choice here. Being able to control enemy players and apply a damage reducing effect after a 6 second CC is very useful. Blade Blitz is a choice you can pick here if you are being rooted a lot and want another ability to help mitigate a bit of extra damage. Using Blade Blitz as another sort of gap closer can be helpful against certain comps, especially full ranged comps. Saber Reflect is pretty useless here as Defense unless you want to punish anyone hitting you directly. 

Level 73

Gather Strength
Whenever your movement is impaired, you gain a 10% damage bonus to your next ability that consumes focus. This effect can stack up to 6 times and lasts 15 seconds.

Purifying Sweep
For the DefenseDiscipline, Smash slows the targets it damages by 60% for 10 seconds. 

Through Peace
Reduces the cooldown of Focused Defense by 30 seconds.

Recommendation
Through Peace is the choice you will want to take almost 99% of the time. Gather Strength and Purifying Sweep are good options on their own, but nothing will be able to be as useful as Through Peace. If you are wanting to maximize damage and not worry about surviving then pick Gather Strength. Purifying Sweep can help peel for friendly targets by applying a devastating slow to enemy targets hit by your Force Sweep but in my opinion is the worst pick here.

Gearing and Stats Priorities

Tacticals

Throwing Arm
Effect: Saber Throw lowers the target’s accuracy by 70% for 6 seconds.
Recommendation: Having a 30 meter 70% accuracy debuff can be immensely helpful for your teammates. Throwing your saber on a Sniper casting Ambush to have a chance of that big hitting ability missing is very useful.

Second Amulet
Effect: Riposte refunds one focus and finishes the cooldown of Concentrated Slice.
Recommendation: This is a Focus Guardian tactical, but the effect of Riposte refunding one focus can be somewhat useful, but certainly not the best choice.

Grit Teeth
Effect: The active cooldown of Saber Ward is reduced by 2 seconds when you are attacked. This effect cannot occur more than once per second.
Recommendation: This is the tactical you should be using in every situation unless you cannot get your hands on it. Having a reduction on a decent dcd each time you get attacked(which you will always be getting attacked if you have guard on someone getting attacked) can be very useful in helping with your survival. This is a crafted tactical that can be bought off the GTN or picking up the schematic from Kai Zykken when available in his shop.

Life Warden
Effect: Taking damage below 20% heal will rapidly heal you for a large amount. 10 minute cooldown.
Recommendation: Definitely the worst choice of the tacticals listed here, but not completely useless. If you aren’t able to get the previous tacticals but have this one it is a good substitute to have until you are able to get one of the above tacticals.

Legendary Implants/Set Bonus Implants

Force Resistance Package
Effect: Elemental, Internal, Kinetic and Energy damage reduction is increased by 3%.
Recommendation: Mainly meant to be used in PvE, can be taken in PvP to help mitigate some damage, but not the best choice.

Retaliator Package
Effect: Retaliation has no cooldown.
Recommendation: Fun to spam Riposte, but not the best choice to take for PvP.

Fearless Victor Package
Effect: Whenever you use a focus spending damage ability, your melee damage is increased by 10% for 10 seconds.
Recommendation: Definitely one of the best choices here, you are constantly using abilities and spending focus, so a constant damage increase is an amazing choice.

Champion’s Precision Package
Effect: Activating Combat Focus, Burning Focus, or Threatening Focus grants Champion’s Precision, increasing your critical chance by 20% for 8 seconds.
Recommendation: Another very good choice here, You will be using Threatening Focus quite often and having an added 20% critical chance increase can be very useful to maximize your damage.

Nimble Master Package
Effect: Activating Saber Ward grants Nimble Master increasing your movement speed by 100% for the duration of Saber Ward.
Recommendation: A fun choice if you are keen to try to survive and kite when getting tank tunneled.

Vicious Thirst Package
Effect: Slash, Blade Rush, and Cyclone Slash add Vicious thirst to their targets, stacking up to 5 times. Killing an enemy with Vicious Thirst stacks increases your damage by 3% per stack for 10 seconds.
Recommendation: Not a very practical bonus for any spec, the gains are minimal compared to other implants.

Pairing Champions Precision Package and Fearless Victor Package are the best options to maximize the most damage you can do and apply the most pressure to enemy players. If you are aiming to try to survive and kite more, Using Nimble Master along with the Grit Teeth tactical can help, Champion’s Precision Package would be the second implant to go for with this build.

Stat Priority

You are able to buy all gear pieces from the PvP vendor in the Combat Section of the Imperial/Republic Fleet, but gear drops from crates you receive after completing weeklies will only drop to your certain spec you have selected. To get the right pieces to drop in crates for Defense in this guide, be sure to have one of the DPS specs selected as your Loot Discipline which can be applied by right-clicking your character portrait. Some pieces will drop accuracy (Pummler Gauntlets and Greaves) which you will not need as Defense. You should be using Serendipitous Assault and Focused Retribution as your relics. For Color Crystals, Eviscerating is always the go to. 

Another note to make is some stats may vary depending on what Class Buffs and Datacrons you have found in the galaxy, as some effect mastery and endurance. As of writing this guide, no moddable gear is available yet. So for now the stats you should aim for are 7.15% alacrity and the rest in Critical. 

Reason for DPS Gear
In PvP it is common to see any of the 3 tank classes using DPS gear. The reasoning behind this is due to the fact that mitigation stats just don’t help much in any way in doing damage. Due to this fact it is best to use DPS gear to help your team do more damage AND keep them alive. With mitigation stats all you could really do is guard swap and taunt due to not having any stats to increase actual damage. If you plan to be the best huttball player though, mitigation stats are the way to go, but I’d say that is the only place it would be useful.

Best Defense Guardian PvP Builds in 7.0

These are probably the most useful builds you can run as Defense Guardian.

The Typical Build

Damage Focused Build

Survival Build

These are probably the most useful builds you can run as Defense. I do want to note a bad build though, the taunt damage build. With the taunt damage build you would be using the level 23 passive Marked Assault and the level 39 passive Crushing Mark. This build can work, but it would require a lot of concentration on who you taunt so you could use these 2 abilities on them. Frankly you can’t always guarantee you will be hitting the target you have taunted, and you certainly don’t want to waste a taunt on a target just to deal more damage to them.

Openers, Rotations, Priorities

Opener

Your opener should consist of these abilities in this order:

1. Leap
2. Warding Strike
3. Guardian Slash + Riposte
4. Force Sweep
5. Blade Storm
6. Blade Barrage
7. Threatening Focus
8. Strike / Cyclone Slash

Burst Rotation

 Your Burst Rotation should consist of these abilities in this order:

1. Warding Strike
2. Threatening Focus + Guardian Slash
3. Riposte
4. Blade Storm
5. Force Sweep
6. Blade Barrage

Priorities After Opener

1. Warding Strike
2. Guardian Slash
3. Blade Storm
4. Riposte
5. Blade Barrage
6. Force Sweep
7. Strike / Cyclone Slash
8. Saber Throw
9. Strike

Outside of the burst rotation, you should be using Threatening Focus as a focus builder, root breaker, or a cooldown reduction on your taunts.

PvP Tanking Tips, Tricks and Recommendations

Focus Target’s Target & Target’s Target

Having these 2 keybinds can define how fast you can react to enemy DPS abilities. I highly recommend having these 2 keybinds, which are “Acquire Target’s Target” and “Acquire Focus Target’s Target”. Found here in the settings:

These keybinds can help you greatly with guard swapping. Having a sniper on focus target, and seeing them cast ambush, all it takes is the press of a button to acquire their target and throw that friendly a guard. I have my keybinds set to Q and E because these keybinds are very close to where my fingers are while playing, so it is quick to press and guard.

General Tanking Tips

Tanking in Regular Warzones

Tanking in Regular Warzones comes completely down to how you, the player, want to play. You could use any of the builds I have talked about previously in the guide and determine how you want to play! Personally I enjoy trying to do the most damage in regs while also trying to guard swap each time a teammate is low. But at the end of the day it is your choice if you want to be the super offensive tank or super defensive tank.

Tanking in Solo Ranked

Tanking in Solo Ranked is drastically different than in Regular Warzones. Depending on what you have on your team and what type of game it is going to put on as much pressure on the enemy team is key. In games with 3 DPS and 1 Tank it’s simple, you either die first or kill the enemy team first. Of course you will still want to play the tank role and swap guard, use taunt, and cc’s. In a Tank/Heal/2 DPS game – playing more conservative is best depending on if you think your dps players are capable of getting a kill. If you feel you need to step up on the damage don’t be afraid to.

Tanking in Group Ranked

Definitely the hardest content to tank on this list, Group Ranked is where boys become men. Being able to consistently put out damage AND mitigate damage for your team is key to victory. Again depending on what you are playing and what you are playing against – playstyle will change. For instance if you are playing a hardswap composition, conserving burst and playing more defensive in between your team’s swaps is the best. It all depends on what you are playing with and against, and every situation can have a different means of approach for the tank.

Dealing with Tank Tunnel

Tank tunnel is when you, the tank, are getting tunneled directly by enemy players. Depending on the sort of content you are doing there are different ways to deal with this.

Regular Warzones, against melee
Depending on if you are playing with a healer or have a healer on the team, the best thing to do is keep guarding while kiting around the engagement. Using abilities to keep separation between you and the melee dps attacking you can help you survive. Abilities like Force Charge to leap to enemy players, Mad Dash to quickly get away from enemy players while also breaking roots, and Intercede to which you can use to leap to friendly targets that are distant from the enemy melee attacking you.

Regular Warzones, against ranged
Again the same thing depends on who you have on your team. Against ranged using LoS objects (For example, the middle box in the middle of the map on Ancient Hypergate) to run around and keep breaking the casts the ranged classes are casting on you. 

Solo Ranked with 3 DPS
Dealing with tank tunnel in solo ranked is going to be pretty similar to the things I mentioned in the previous regular warzone tips. You will want to keep distance between you and the melee, you can also do this by kiting around an object just like you would vs ranged. Again using Mad Dash to create distance can be useful, or running behind a corner to make the melee group together and use Intimidating Roar (Fear).  (Example is the box in the middle of Corellia square, or in between the 4 towers in Tatooine Canyon). 

Solo Ranked with a healer
Again you won’t change much here, this just depends on what you are against and what heal class you have with you. If you play to LoS the enemy team, you will want to be paired with a Sorcerer/Sage Healer. If you are with an Operative/Scoundrel or Mercenary/Commando healer – playing the distance and kiting game is best as these healers cast the majority of their long heals while a Sorcerer won’t have this issue.

Group Ranked
You should always be playing the trinity composition in Team Ranked (2 DPS, 1 Healer, 1 Tank). Dealing with tank tunnel will be a lot easier as you are playing with players you know and are communicating with. You will take everything in the previous tips into consideration, what team comp you have, what the enemy has, what healer you have. These are the main things you need to consider when choosing how you should deal with the tank tunnel.

How to Peel for Teammates

Keeping teammates alive is a tank’s number one priority. You can do this with guard but also by using peels! Let’s talk about one of Defense’s best ways of peeling, which is with Awe.

Using Awe to mez out an enemy player attacking teammates will not only give your teammate time to reorganize themself and possibly gain cds, but will also apply the 15% melee and ranged reduction debuff. Using your hard stuns are another way to help peel for teammates.

There are a couple ways you can use these hard stuns to help but depends on the situation. If a friendly target is being attacked by 2 different enemies, you can use one stun on each enemy to help relieve the pressure of both. If one enemy is the main issue, using both stuns is a viable option too. You can use both stuns on one target, but after they will be white barred.

The last way to help peel is by using roots/knockbacks. If you are taking the root on Blade Blitz with the Debilitating Slashes utility, this is a good option to root enemy players and help create distance between them and your teammate. Using Force Push to knock away enemy targets is another good option, and can help your teammates immensely. 

Tanking Against Ranged

Tanking against ranged in PvP can prove to be tricky, as you need to watch your positioning to not over extend to attack them. If you over extend to attack the ranged, this can leave you vulnerable to a knock back which can result in your guarded target being killed. Watching for key abilities such as Aimed Shot (Sharpshooter Gunslinger) and Turbulence (Telekinetic Sage) will give an indication of who to guard. 

There are really only 3 abilities that ranged classes can use that are worth guard swapping immediately for. These 3 abilities are Aimed Show (Sharpshooter Gunslinger), Explosive Charge (Saboteur Gunslinger), and Turbulence (Telekinetic Sage). Commando is a class that is a bit too difficult to guard swap against considering their main, big hitting abilities are not casted, but are an instant ability. When electro net is used though, using guard on the target can help relieve some of the pressure the net is causing with its hindering effect.

Marksman Sniper

One of the easiest classes to read, Sharpshooter has a staple rotation of Snipe, Snipe, Ambush. This can be easy to read and if you react fast enough, you can guard the Ambush. Snipers get a buff that looks like this: from using Charged Burst 2 times.

At 2 stacks Aimed Shot has a reduced cast time, so looking for this buff and acquiring the Slinger’s target. Wait for Aimed Shot to start casting and use your acquire target’s target keybind, or if you have a sniper on focus target, use your acquire focus target’s target keybind and guard that target. In this screenshot, you can see that the Gunslinger has a yellow buff on his buff bar, this is Smugglers Luck . When a Slinger has this buff, it is imperative that you guard the target, as that means the Slinger’s Aimed Shot will be an auto crit. 

You can also see a red eye on the Sniper’s target, this is your visual indication of who the Sniper is casting Ambush on.

Engineering Sniper

Dealing with a Sabo Slinger can be quite tricky. Guard swapping against it on the other hand can be quite simple, it just requires a bit of attention. When playing vs a Sabo Slinger, all of their burst comes from one predictable ability. This ability is Explosive Charge, and vs a Sabo Slinger it is important to be looking at your teammates buff bar, as the Explosive Charge debuff shows up like this . When the target with this debuff is attacked it will explode and put 3 stacks of explosive charges on the target . This deals quite a bit of damage all together, and as the tank, you can mitigate that just by guarding the target with the debuff shown above. If you are having a hard time staying alive vs a Sabo Slinger, I would recommend staying out of the Slinger’s AoE attacks. 

Diversion

This section will only apply if you have a Slinger on your team but are playing against a Slinger as well. Diversion is an ability that denies an enemy sniper from entering cover. Cover is how Slinger’s cast the majority of their abilities. In cover Slinger’s have the ability to use Hunker Down which grants them immunity to all controlling effects, but diversion cancels this out and forces the Slinger out of cover. Typically diversion is used for this exact reason vs a Slinger, if your friendly Slinger get’s diversion thrown on them and is getting attacked/stunned you should guard them.

Telekinetics Sage

TK Sage can deal a lot of burst damage with 2 abilities, Turbulence + Telekinetic Wave. While TK Wave can be activated instantly after using certain abilities, the most burst will come from the Turbulence + TK Wave pair, and luckily for us, Turbulence is casted, which means you can easily guard it. You also have a visual key from the Sage that shows they are casting Turbulence, it will look like this:

If you are targeting the Sage, or have them on focus target, you will primarily be looking for this cast

Guard swapping to their target on this ability can help mitigate a lot of burst damage the Sage can do. Note that Sage have a set bonus that increases damage by 20% of their next ability after using Force Speed, usually this ability would be Turbulence – so catching this ability in guard can mitigate a lot of its damage.

Tanking Against Melee

Tanking against melee is on the easier side of tanking in PvP, due to you will always see where the melee you are watching runs to. There are 2  abilities that you need to look for as a tank against 2 classes, Assault Plastique (Tactics Vanguard) and Blood Boiler (Scrapper Scoundrel). These 2 abilities leave a debuff on the target that you can guard swap to to mitigate the damage. Here is an example of what you should look for against 2 melee classes.

Here you can see both enemy Powertechs are running towards my team’s Sniper. I already have him selected to guard, but the way their characters are positioned is a key indication they are going to swap to the unguarded Sniper.

Tactics Vanguard

Generally it is a good idea to guard the target a Vanguard is sitting on, and swap guard if they swap targets. Watching for when an enemy Vanguard uses their offensive cooldown, Battle Focus , and guarding their target is important. Vanguard damage outside of what you can predictably guard is very high. The ability that you want to guard swap for is Assault Plastique, and will show up as a debuff on the target looking like this . Assault Plastique can be part of a burst rotation, which can nuke the target’s health. You have a very tiny visual key, which is the animation of the Vanguard throwing the Assault Plastique

While this is a very tiny visual indication, you also have an audio cue which will sound like a high pitched beep. It can help make guarding the target easier when you see the animation where the Assault Plastique goes along with the sound.

Scrapper Scoundrel

Scrapper can utilize a high burst rotation due to a tactical. As a tank, you want to look at the buff bar of your teammates to watch if they get the debuff Blood Boiler, which is where the Scoundrel burst rotation starts. The debuff will look like this guarding this will require a lot of attention, as this tactical Scrapper Scoundrels run makes this ability detonate instantly, causing it to critically hit, they will also be granted another auto crit big hit ability after they utilize Back Blast. Unfortunately there is no easy way to see a visual key like a TK Sage or SS Slinger has. 

Conclusions

I’d like to thank Vulkk for the opportunity given to me to write this guide.

I go by Valek, I have mained Juggernaut for 6 years now. I have mained tank for about the same time and PvP’d for even longer. I hope that this guide can help shed some light on the class as well as tanking in general. This guide can be used across all forms of PvP, from Regular Warzones to Ranked.

I have several achievements in ranked such as: Season 8: Top 3 Assassin, Juggernaut, and Shadow. Season 9: Top 3 Assassin, Juggernaut, and Vanguard. Season 10: Top 3 Juggernaut, Guardian, and Powertech, Season 11: Top 3 Guardian, Season 12: Top 3 Marauder and Powertech, along with a multitude of gold tiers across the seasons.

You can occasionally see me stream at https://www.twitch.tv/valekxd or watch previous team ranked videos I have of tanking.

If any questions arise, you can message me in-game or leave questions below in the comment section. I will do my best to reply in the comments, but a for sure answer will come from an ingame mail/whisper. I play on the server Darth Malgus and my character names are Yuggers (Guardian), Vålek (Juggernaut), Smash Monkey (Marauder), and Syrenza (Assassin).