Obtainable Optimum Tank Stats

[TehScat]

This thread is intended as a discussion for the theorycraft and solution to the problem of what mods to get. There are many threads with graphs and spreadsheets that are very helpful, and provide the basis of the theory presented here, however itemization limitations mean that the optimal solutions are not possible to acquire. So, we set out to use the tools at our disposal and do the best we can!

1) This will, at least for now, have a Assassin/Shadow focus as that is my class and I know the most about their mechanics. The fact that our stats are very balanced (between defense, shield and absorb) in weighting is important at high gear levels.
2) We will be focusing on minimizing squishiness (as per LagunaD's spreadsheet and formulae), although endurance will need to be considered later due to high level itemization.

Spec and Mechanics.
We will be using this spec for the calculations. There are a lot of floating points in early darkness, and deciding on which talents you want as far as DPS/threat talents and utility go is your preference, but any serious tank will take our (underpowered) 3% endurance passive, along with the core skills along the way like Dark (Kinetic) Ward. Other than a few choice talents, the spec means very little to the below calculations.

The base mitigation/avoidance we will be using is straight from LagunaD's formulae and spreadsheet. We will implement the set bonuses at higher gear levels as we do more and more theorycraft on the subject. More information can be found on the spreadsheet thread, but the base stats for an Assassin/Shadow are:

2% damage reduction (2% Sith Defiance).
16% defense (10% base, 2% Premonition, 4% Lightning Reflexes).
35% shield (20% base, 15% Dark Ward).
24% absorb (20% base, 4% Hollow).

We will not factor Wither into the calculations, but to implement its effects simply multiply any squishiness value by 0.95 and that will be the Withered value.

The Gear.
There are several categories of gear here, and it is difficult to make any kind of Best In Slot list with so many options. However, since we have a clear goal of maximizing damage reduction (including mitigation and avoidance) then we can make some fairly simple assumptions straight off. This will form a foundation for when we need to move Mods around later.

The first assumption is that anyone minimizing squishiness will use the Mastercraft Ear/Implant slots, since they have the highest total of secondary stats. However, those stats are not ideal of course - we cannot plug our excel data into the game and get it to spew out items with ideal stats. However, these items have the largest budget AND absolute effect on squishiness in-game to my knowledge.

1x Veracity Hyperaccelerated Resistance Module [Mastercraft]
2x Veracity Nano-Optic Resistance Implant [Mastercraft].

Each has 40 Shield, 60 Defense, 1 Augment slot, and a bunch of stats we don't care about right now.

The first gear level is your fresh 50. Doing dailies will quickly get you enough cash and free mods to get a full set of gear at this level. The only piece you will need to work for is the Tionese Survivor's Shield Generator, which for the purposes of this guide is perfectly interchangable with the Centurion shield gen too, since they have the same secondary stats. Which one you get depends on if you do your 3 hard modes first, finish the weekly and buy the Tionese one, or do 9 warzones, finish your weekly and buy the Centurion one.

Orange Helm, Chest, Gloves, Legs, Boots, Wrists, Belt, Saber - 8 armorings, 8 mods, 5 enhancements.
T1 Shield Generator gives 37 shield, 28 defense.

Using the level 49 epic mods (from dailies/crafting, tier 22), we are limited on enhancements to only having shield/absorb or shield/defense stats, there is no absorb/defense enhancement. Therefore, before we continue, we can add 5 enhancements worth of compulsary shield to the totals. Each gives 39 shield and 27 of either defense or absorb, depending on if you use Sturdiness or Immunity.

So far we have:
352 shield.
208 defense.
2224 base armour (which becomes 6134 on an assassin with Dark Charge).
8 mods.
5 enhancements.
3 augments.

So lets plug those stats into the spreadsheet.
Weightings:
Defense: 2.20432572842264
Shield: 0.62603531054728
Absorb: 3.82901751066813

Given how low shield's weighting is, we can split the remaining floating points from augments, mods and enhancements between defense and absorb. However, these floating points can only be spent in blocks of 27/28 - you can't split the stats on those mods!

8 mods and 5 enhancements, 27 each = 351
3 augments, 28 each = 84
Total floating points total is 435.

The ideal split for these floating points is 3 defense mods (for 81 more, up to 289 defense) and the remaining mods/enhancements/augments into absorb for 354 total.

So our stats, by the spreadsheet, look like this:
289 Defense: 2.05351628378947 weighting.
352 Shield: 1.59131931513831 weighting.
354 Absorb: 2.05247613645577 weighting.

Squishyness: 0.34325971842631

That is not a bad value for a fresh 50! However, the stat budget was 995 - its a lot of stats even at this (relatively) low gear level. The problem we have is that its far from optimal - without running a solver, the optimal stat distribution for an assassin with a 995 budget is close to 440 def, 215 shield and 340 absorb. The problem is, we get so much shield without a choice from poor itemization that we cannot come down to this optimal figure. The difference in squishiness is only around 1%, but in the game of optimization, that's a lot.

So, using the gear listed above, you cannot get LESS than 352 shield. And this is with low level mods - it only gets higher as you use better gear. Not only that, but absorption mods/enhancements get more difficult to find, as Columi and Rakata gear are littered with accuracy and defense, both of which we have well over our desired amounts of already.

At a Columi level, maximizing our available absorption on Columi level mods (level 56, tier 24) has some issues:

1) Only the boots, chest and legs have absorb mods in them - the gloves and helm have defense mods. If you need absorb on those mods, you need to get extra pieces of boots/chest/legs and move mods around.
2) The enhancements in Columi gear are either accuracy based (AKA: worthless in this context and, largely, in real raiding situations) or defense with high endurance. Our precious Advanced Sturdiness Enhancement 22 is far better, from a squishiness point of view, than any enhancement at a Columi/Champion level.
3) Champion Survivor helms/hands have tier 24 defense mods and tier 24 defense/shield enhancements, but again they are endurance heavy.
4) Battlemasters have the luxury (assuming they have spare commendations) of getting tier 25 (level 58) absorb mods from the Battlemaster Survivors helm and hands pieces. Unfortunately, every enhancement in the set has accuracy, and are therefore effectively worthless.

At a Rakata level... expect to be pulling Columi enhancements out if you want to keep up, because accuracy is on all five pieces here. Fail. And Battlemaster gear offers no alternative.

Columi and Rakata gear levels have the following choices specifically for enhancements:

1) Advanced Sturdiness Enhancement 22, crafted.
2) Advanced Steadfast Enhancement 24, found in Columi helms/gloves and Champion helm/gloves. No absorption so possibly not ideal and requires extra farming.
3) Poorly itemized accuracy enhancements, with high endurance and absorb/defense but no shield.
4) Pray for good drops...

So, to the MATLAB experts and graph junkies - in high end gear, not only is shield unavoidable, but also absorption is very difficult to obtain. How can we model optimal stat distributions using the gear we have available? Can we get some comparisons of how the tier 25 accuracy mods weigh up against the crafted tier 22 mods with better stat distribution? Given the high endurance on Rakata level enhancements, is it time we truly looked at the value of Endurance and EH from a theorycrafting point of view?

Because right now, my spreadsheet is telling me to stack absorption, that pulling Columi enhancements out and putting in level 49 crafted ones is giving me almost 30 points of effective armour per piece, and I hesitate to rip out my shiny high-level decently-itemized mods and replace them with the same things I used when I was starting hardmode flashpoints. And it only gets worse when I get Rakata gear...