Level 22 Powertech, should I respec already?

I have a lvl 50 PT tank... and with Mako nothing can stand in my way. I can solo (with companion) the occasional CHAMPION!

I dont think anyone else (even the other tanks) handles PvE as well as a PT. Certainly the Merc' DPS and Healers can make an argument, but my wife plays a Merc' Healer and uses Gault/Skadge, together they certainly can kill faster mobs, but in no way can the kill harder mobs. It helps her using lots of power and crit which also doubles up on DPS output, but using def/absorb/shield/Mako allows me to wade through the occasional 2 man heroics.

Moving over to my operative or marauder... what an eye opener on havng PvE difficulties.

Shield Tech is a tanking tree. You'll get less DPS than you will as Advanced Prototype or Pyrotech.

The other two are much of a muchness.

Go for personal taste anyway, dont listen to anyone who says you have to play any spec! (unless you are trying to DPS in Ion Cylinder or something silly.)

I am a tank Powertech (Shield Tech) and have opted for the classical 31 / 8 / 2 set up (skill points).
And it seems no problem at all soloing the PvE quests (I only die when I do not check what I am attacking first: for example if I do not see that there are healers among the Elites or whatever, and I do not take them down first). I am sure I go slower than pure DPS, but I also am pretty sure I can deal with stronger enemies than pure DPS.
So, pure tank is no problem at all (we get Mako the Healer as our first companion, and I have never once used any other).

re. DPS as Powertech: I have no personal experience with that, but I know there are builds, for example the Shield/Pyro Carolina Parakeet build (21 / ? / ? I think).
My feeling is that those builds will not be able to tank in FlashPoints etc., and I like the fact I can (maybe a bit slow) solo everything, and then join as tank in FPs.

In PvP, I imagine the DPS Powertechs do more damage than I do... but, again, I tank in PvP, and it works very well: I am not that great in taking an enemy down, but when I shield a Healer (or DPSer) and reduce the enemy's damage, it helps a LOT.

The most important, IMO, is for your to feel what part you want to play: a tank (go for pure ShieldTech tree, works great in solo PvE, group PvE, and PvP if you fight using your skills ie. Guarding, Taunting...) ; or a heavy armor DPS (I imagine going Pyro' ?) which might work in PvP (as I said, never tried that side so cannot say).

But, no, you do not need Retractable Blade as a Powertech.
You do not need it at all if you go tank / ShieldTech.
And, maybe you can "need" it if you want to do a more DPS less tank build?

It's tricky at such an early stage what build to go into. People say DPS is best, others defence. And I'm not sure either way.
With my current build I'm doing ok. But still can get down to 50% health fighting a same level strong opponent, that's with Mako.

I think I should get the best build to aid in PVE and since I want to be a tank end game, maybe putting points into defence would help with heriocs. After all, they invite me as a tank and I am dps.

Look at it this way, level as a tank, practice getting and holding agro to ensure that mako takes as little damage as possible. This way when you get to fifty, you'll already have tank orientated gear (which will need updating of course, but at least it's a start), you'll be used to all your tanking abilities, and used to getting and keeping agro from multiple mobs. It's not much of a challenge to get and keep agro from mako, particularly if she's in medwatch mode, but every bit of practice helps. You don't want to be one of those useless tanks who's specced dps, with dps gear, and no practice keeping and holding agro, there's far too many of them on my server as I level my own PT.

If you really want to start focussing on your skills, and what you should use when, do what I do every ten levels or so:
Calculate the average damage of each ability, write all that down in a column in spreadsheet
Divide those values by the heat generated and put the answers in another column next to it (gives you an idea of which moves are heat efficient to use when you've got high heat)
Take the figures in the first row and divide them by the number of 1.5 seconds it takes to use them (count the gcd as a 1.5 second cast, e.g rocket punch is divided by 1, Flame thrower is divided by 2 as it's a three second cast) This will give you a list of your abilities' dps so you know which abilities to use when they're available for maximum damage (and to some extent threat generation).

The reason I do this every ten levels or so is, new skills, different skills scale differently according to stats on gear and talents.

I find my PT to be unstoppable, I can take on an elite and a couple of strongs at once, or some same level champions, although I do keep my gear (and mako's) very up to date using credits from my main which may not be possible for everyone.

#1 if their telling you prototype is the better of the dps trees then you shouldnt be listening to anything they say as its suspect. if you want dps pyro PT is by far the better spec in terms of damage and survivability. theres problems with prototype they need to address as it doesnt seem to work well together.

#2 Personally i leveled tank all the way, with a geared mako at my side i was unstoppable to anything under Boss level, champions were trampled and everything else just surrendered. look into a starting rotation for combat that works for you so you can burn thru the weaker guys and piss of the bigger ones. You wont see alot of 10 second battles but you will power on through just about anything.

#3 if your not pyro specced flameburst sucks. only use it if your heat is hitting zero and everything else is on cooldown. the goal is to stay within the early heat zone without letting it bottom out for max damage within max heat negation. Thats not to say you shouldnt go alittle over, but the higher the heat gets the harder it is to get it down.

I leveled about halfway as AP and the other half as the Parakeet pvp build.

Either worked fine with Mako and I solo'd roughly lvls 20 - 50.

Your problem is you are trying to tank with a healing pet, your both putting out crap DPS. If you are taking little damage put Mako away and pull out a companion that does DPS. Save Mako for the tough ellites, or just forget about her all together.

If you go full DPS you will kill things faster, but you will also find yourself loosing health faster than Mako can heal you. Its all about balance and how you use your companions.

Death From Above normally one-shots or leaves mobs with a sliver of hp (that are easily finished with a Rapid Shots each). Explosive Dart + Flamethrower shreds mobs. Pick things off with a Rocket Punch/Rail Shot/Rapid Shots. That's like what 3-10 seconds per pack? And I burn through Toughs in about 10 seconds each. The only things that take any significant amount of time to die are Elite mobs, and on those you'd normally want your healing companion anyway. So on normal trash packs... no, you don't really do "crap DPS", if you know what you're doing. I'd much rather have Mako out healing me so I can chain pull pack after pack after pack instead of downing one pack 3 seconds faster and then using Recharge and Reload all the time.

@OP: Adv Prototype has some issues (as mentioned) but is completely PvE DPS oriented. Pyrotech is (currently) the best choice for PvE DPS, and also offers a lot of PvP utility. Shieldtech is obviously the tank tree. If you like to tank, leveling with that tree can help you get a feel for it early on. And with Mako a Shieldtech PT is pretty much unstoppable in solo PvE. And people doing Flashpoints tend to love you (unless you're a bad tank, then they never stop flaming you).

LVL 50 PT. Prototype tier is fun, I haven't tried the other trees or compared the Pyro spec. But I didn't have any problem killing things with Mako. Champs and bosses I come out with a scrap of maybe 20% hp. I believe xRyu is right, it might be you have no DPS going for you.
Here's how I spec'd 6/32/2.
(http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301hMzZrsMrorfkksZb.1)

I do a great deal of dmg, and I can do some tanking with the Ion gas (not great but handy in groups, pvp or as an alt tank)