I am a Valor 84 Assassin, and I have been running 27/1/13 darkness spec for PvP since valor 55. I have always used the shield generator instead of the power generator. The only difference between them is the ability to shield, and the stats. The power generator provides a lot more crit, and some willpower while losing endurance. I will agree with people here that Shield is not the best form of mitigation as it only affects white hits, but I disagree with the fact that you should not use shielding. With Dark Ward and Lightning Reflexes, you should definitely use a shield generator. While shields to not affect every hit like defense or armor, the white hits that are mitigated by shields helps a lot. It will vary by battle, but I think it is worth it in the long run to use a shield generator over the power generator. Everything else I wear is DPS PVP gear. Not only does shielding help with survivability, it also provides more Force from Lightning Reflexes, and thus increases DPS. There are not many ways to improve Force regen, so I try and utilize most of them.

Hey Cimos here from The Swiftsure. I haven't seen may Assassin PvP videos out there, so I decided to post mine here. I am by no means a good video editor, but I did my best. Let me know what you think! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3fQK3nTsL0&context=C41c0243ADvjVQa1PpcFMKWXmWK_OqFVY3vFy7g_EgeEO_87ImRzk=

What if I put the correct mod back in the item, but it is not the mod from that piece (i.e. lets say helm and gloves had the same mods, and when I put them back, I accidentally swapped them because I do not know which mod came from which piece.) I would assume as long as the rakata / bm gear has the same mod/enhance setup as the original, it would update?

I originally said that I thought stacking crit was better. I am going to try stacking power, and report back. I use the tank spec.

If you are running 31/0/10, I would recommend taking the mods out of the Stalkers gear, and putting them into the Survivor gear. You dont want defensive mods, but you do want the Survivor 4 pc bonus over the stalkers 4 pc bonus. 5% extra dmg while guarding basically makes up for the lost damage from Dark Charge. If you are that spec, you should always be guarding someone.

A good guide, but I would not say that this is the end all, be all. I am a Valor 72 Sith Assassin, and I utilize the 27/1/13 spec. Crazy survivability, with good sustained damage with shock / thrash. I can 1v1 almost anyone because of my survivability. I wear 4/5 BM Survivor gear because I get 5% extra dmg while guarding someone (which I do all the time). The mods in my BM Survivor gear include mostly crit / surge, and then crit / accuracy after surge soft cap. I would use a crit / power enhancement if there was one.... Because I stack crit over power, the BM saber is much better than the champion saber. My bonus melee dmg is only around 360ish, but my self buffed crit is over 30%. I would argue that my setup is much better for 27/1/13 (or 31/0/10), but probably not as good for deception. I put up 475k in voidstar the other day, and I consistently break 300k in voidstar and sometimes in civil war. Just my 2 cents.