Yes, using shadow strike on the sides instead of the back seems to work. The thing with spinning strike is that it starts the animation but doesnt quite finish it, I'm sure if you lack the force to use it or the target is not low enough on hitpoints you never even start the animation. It doesnt happen too often though. Honestly, I wasnt really expecting the vanish type spell to work properly from the start anyway. Resilience doesnt even remove certain debuffs, like that bomb with timer on it that bounty hunters use ( I guess it's not removable). Force cloak might also suffer from that issue where abilities just wont go off, which seems to be fairly common. Having complete immunity to damage in vanish wouldnt be good, I agree with that. I wouldn't see certain amount of creativity allowed with how the abilities can be used as a bad thing. It's actually what I was expecting from this class. I realize you meant it as in abusing slightly broken mechanics which is a bit different thing. How vanish works in wow currently seems ok, stealth doesnt break from damage for 3 seconds after using it but you're not immune to damage. Still need to clos dots for a clean vanish but it gives a lot more room to work with. Different game but anyway.

I have also noticed all things OP mentioned. The thing with shadow strike not working while behind the boss also seems to happen with scoundrels attack, I think it's called backblast. In group pve having stealth seems to be more of a hinderance then anything else.

Definately more entertaining pvp video then the average of the ones I've seen. Leveling a guardian myself. I think I'm going to try same spec you're using, just gonna put that one point from quake to intimidation. Kind of like vengeance buuuut the damage really seems lacking. I could definately work with damage thats not really bursty. But the rotation seems to work around fairly expensive attacks that can reset the cd on ravage which in turn doesnt cost anything. it's ust that the damn ravage is completely unusable. Why does melee class have something like this, I dont even.... Anyway, thanks and have fun. (trolls gonna troll)

The story wasnt really good until lvl 30 or so, then it starts picking up. I like the female consular voice actor, she makes it quite a bit better.

To a raid dps shadow/assasin doesnt bring anything besides damage. Sentinel for example brings buffs that effect the group, transcendence, zen and inspiration. In pvp the utility is fairly limited, some control abilities and taunts. I guess personal stealth can be counted as utility for ninjaing things and such. I expected a bit more from this class, currently it's rather bland.

Infiltration build where elusiveness is taken might be worth mentioning. 7/31/3 The reduced cooldown on both resilience and force speed is quite useful with the general lack of mobility this spec has.

yes, the infiltration specs are very cooldown (+consumable) and rng dependant. Also you're very fragile with very little tools to survive if you get focused. Force cloak usually with resilience so you dont drop out of stealth immediately. Deflection doesnt seem to work all that great, it's basicly a bad saber ward. You can use force speed or CC and run behind a pillar but dropping out of combat takes really long time so you cant stealth and you have no in-combat heals yourself. Taunts are a bit weird as you can use them but you cant survive too well if enemies switch to you. They are situatonally useful and, you can get some easy medals with them though. With force cloak you can force a switch away from you once but you cant tank at all. Long range stun, force slow and knock back are nice and all but the spec seems to be a bit lacking overall.

After doing Eternity Vault as infiltration shadow I have noticed what OP and several others have mentioned. My only gap closer is force speed on 30 sec cd which is what all consulars have (sages have it also and are ranged dps). With the reduced aoe damage take and the resilience which lets you resist various attacks the spec seemed to be ok at first, it's really hard to tell with no dps meter to show how everything compares. Then, Soa, the Infernal One *sigh*. On this boss it becomes very clear how much melee dps gets gimped. I actually switched from infiltration to balance because you get couple instant cast spells with 30m range to cast while running. You still cant do good dps from outside melee range but it's a bit more flexible. I generally love playing melee and would play infiltration but currently it simply doesnt seem to work.