Sweetie-Bell, I haven't looked at the new gear for too long, but why don't you just take the Force-Master's Focus and replace the enhancment with he EWH Lightsaber power-enhancment? Or with the War hero enhancment if you are for max power. Also, my head hurts and I don't wanna do the math right now, but won't the new PvE Focus still be the better choice, granted they would need some swapping around, which requires a lot of cba-PvE, but still? Can't believe how well they played on these new gear.. The carrot on the stick is huger than I expected..

Buff for PvE, huge nerf for PvP (atleast for DPS-Kinetics; guess it is a poor attempt by BW making more people use defensive gear in PvP)..

As I said 'even more so if you don't have all your CDs'.. As you said for the beginning if you have all your CDs it's great but you may get in trouble if you don't..

The 1st build sounds good, the second build not so much.. Though I think the first build will be a purely defensive build, as you will lack a lot of dps (and only relying on a DS+Project+SS combo, will slowly but steadily eat your force away; even more so when you don't have all your CDs)... Node defending will be nuts.. The build could be a pretty beasty build for a shadow main tank in rateds.. With the right gear you could be almost unkillable and couldn't really be separated from the people you want to guard.. Personally I'd look at a build like this: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rfMozrskrsZhMbZc.2 or this http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rfMozrskZhMbZf0cR.2 though the force costs will not really be worth it.. But I'm pretty sure and hope BW won't allow these kind of builds, because it would be just nuts..

So infil for new FoTM in PvP?! I can sense the nerf-threads already.

Didn't you know? It's part of the new stealth nerf for shadows, that and the stuns that now go through resilience!

Jenzali in ranked or non-ranked situation?

Ya, sorry wasn't clear on that .. Was talking about Shadows for now.. And I wanted to add that it really comes down to your play-style in the end.. Got a stupid question there as I don't know the Rage spec in detail.. Do your attacks auto-crit on demand, or are they bound to CDs? If they are bound to CDs, how long are they?

1v.1, or 1v.2, probably more HP and less Exp. is the better choice (burst dmg reduction; look at the calculations above).. If you are looking at purely tanking, less Exp. If you get focussed a lot or are in the midst of the action, more Exp. Also, I'm still not sold om the drop of Crit in favor of power. Again if you're looking at burst damage, yes power is undeniable the best choice, but again if you are in the midst of the action, dealing damage, crit actually increases your DPS over time (BUT you don't want to drop your power cruciallly for getting more Crit)..

I'm interested in this also not to level an alt but to know how the rated scene in general looks on other servers.. Sadly, the rankeds are pretty much dead on The Red Eclipse too ..

Have that happen lately too some times.. Are you sure though that the attacks, weren't Melee or Ranged? As for example, Combat specced Sents can root through Resilience.

I hope the double-post may be forgiven, but I ran a combat parser (dunno if it's allowed to post links here), and to have 25% crit unbuffed as a pure Darkness (with Duplicity), really seems to be more DPS in the end.. In average you seem to be getting 10-15 more crits, during a duration of 3 minutes.. I might be doing runs with just 0.5-1minute to resemble 1vs.1 fights more, but at the moment I tend to drop power to get some crit, is the better choice..

That's what I'm trying to find out at the moment.. Whether to stay that low at crit, or get some more, for the times you can't fish for Energize or don't have Recklessness up.. I'm kinda starting to think that 25% crit as pure darkness (with Duplicity) isn't that bad of an idea..

Yes, I agree on the importance of crit post 1.3.. Before that with relics and adrenals I'd say, get as many power as you can, but know I think you're better off having some crit.

I take it this is with all buffs on right?

Ohh, dunno if these two were mentioned yet (pretty basic stuff): If you wanna know how long you gotta wait for the respawn-door to vanish, look at the circle in the middle. It's divided into quarters, one disappearing after 10 seconds each.. Also, if ops-chat is broken for you and you can't type anything into /ops, ctrl + u twice, that will fix it.

Two points in Expertise? What have I missed?

Hey! With Xin's latest guide entry and 1.3 taking out adrenals and relics, I was beginning to think if it is worth to get your crit chance up as a DPS Kinetic. I was starting to drop some of my power to get crit chance up to 25% unbuffed (still remaining at above 1k power).. I really can't make my head up, whether full-out power is the way to go, or if that additional crit gives more benefit (and parser seem to favor the crit one more). Anyone run similiar tests and might want to share their findings? Thanks!

Yes, what I basically did was, I sat at 19%ish crit and just relied on power. Question is, if getting 25% crit unbuffed is beneficial over going all power.

Hey! With Xin's latest guide entry and 1.3 taking out adrenals and relics, I was beginning to think if it is worth to get your crit chance up as a DPS Darkness. I was starting to drop some of my power to get crit chance up to 25% unbuffed (still remaining at above 1k power).. I really can't make my head up, whether full-out power is the way to go, or if that additional crit gives more benefit (and parser seem to favor the crit one more). Anyone run similiar tests and might want to share their findings? Thanks!

Nice Guide again, well done! Only suggestion I'd have is that you could have mentioned where you mapped your movment too, if it is WAD or WR (it might have been in the guide, I'm tired and naturally don't have a great attention span, so if it's in there, forget what I just said! ) I know this question seems out of place, but since you talked about gearing in this video, I wanted to ask you about your opinion about crit chance and the good old Kinetic spec. Lately, I have been thinking if I shouldn't be going for a bit more crit as a pure Kinetic. The sustained damage I get with all power is nice and nothing to sneeze at, but sometimes I wish that my unbuffed Projects and ST would crit a bit more often. And seeing that it is able to get at 25% crit with still maintaining a power level over 1k really, almost makes me to give it a try, but I'm naturally lazy, short of credits and having a mild form of OCD doesn't help either (ohh, ya the excuses! ).. Also, you seem to be going for Willpower around 1600 buffed with a stim. Is that more advisable than going for 1600 Willpower without a stim? Is DR really not worth it to go for 1600 unbuffed? Thanks!

Order-Sixty-Six could you explain this, please? I don't get it: '>First thing you should do out of the respawn is use the medpac when defending so attackers can't heal. Yes, a team mate may need it, but you don't want them at your door any longer than they have to be.' Some things to add (some are just more detailed and already been mentioned by Xinika): Have a sentinel in your team giving you a speed buff at the beginning of a match helps a lot! Also don't be quick on killing people in Voidstar or Huttball or wherever.. Sometimes it is better to CC them and slow them down.. Sometimes you do your enemy team a favour if you just kill them and they can respawn with full health.. For shadows (or anyone with pulls) in Huttball: Watch for runners that the ball carrier is about to pass too.. Pull them away rather than the ballcarrier. Trouble holding mid in Huttball? Get someone with a AoE-Stun wait 3 seconds after someone scored and let them drop the stun.. Intercepted the ball near your goal line? Better be safe than sorry and pop Resilience or reset the ball.. You can still be pulled into the firepit by someone resulting in the enemy team to score anyway.. This works the other way round too.. The enemy got the ball in their endzone? Stealth to the nearest firepit and pull the ballcarrier in.. Start using grenades! Some of them are nasty with stuns and so on and they can be used by anyone!

The reason for dropping the Shadow Strike proc could be that, in 1.3, burst doesn't matter anymore and sustained damage is favoured.. In 1.3 for the proc to be really effective more crit chance will be needed in a set-up, making the change to a full KC worth it again, as you gain a bit more sustained damage, without dropping too much power.. Just my thought, could be wrong!

There is like 4-5 people on fleet everytime I checked (not all of them being 50).. It is sad really..

3) Comps give you boost to crit/surge? How, when, where?