[1.2 Hybrid]

I personally prefer a 3500 maul over a 1200 per tick lightning. Damage over time allows them to react, sure they can't interrupt or knock you back but they can stealth, LoS, Range, pot etc.

 

When you compare it purely like that, Maul's 3500 damage vs 1200 per tick of Lightning, sure. But does Maul heal you for 500+ per tick too?

 

Stealth, only 2 classes can do it. Sins and Ops. In both cases it's a 2 min CD minimum, 3 min untalented. If they want to blow it, they're welcome to it. I'll be happy to waste a 6 second CD Force Lightning on their 3 min CD.

 

LoS doesn't work, as Force Lightning slows your movement 50% for the duration. If you're not already LoSing by the time it is cast, odds are it'll finish.

 

Pot, again, 90 sec CD. They're welcome to it. The cast heals me while it damages them, and I'm a tank, in tanking stance. If I'm forcing them to pot, odds are I will outlast them anyway.

 

I get what you're saying though, a bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush. They could get help (but so could I), they could msybe escape (which is fine and dandy with me, as I'm usually defending something and them running away is a win for me). But the benefits so far outweigh the shortcomings that I don't think it's even a competition any more. Post patch I expect 80-90% switch to Darkness just because it'll be the only semi-viable spec.

 

Some weirdos (in a good way) will play Madness, but IMHO if you want to do that, you should play a Sorc. it works ever so much better when everything you have is 30m range, plus you get the added DoT from Affliction.

 

EDIT: That is not to say some people will not stay Deception and make it work. I'm sure they will. But with that amount of skill and work, they would probably do better as Darkness anyway. Sure, they won't top the damage chart, but the team as a whole will be ever so much better off for it.

[Can we please have a new Assassin class designer?]

I play a powertech and an assassin pretty much side by side .. and I gotta say preventing any spec from using any stance is putting assassins on par with powertech. Not sure how other classes function, bit for powertech you can't go 3 tiers up without picking up skills exclusive to that stance.

 

You couldn't be more wrong. Look up Carolina Parakeet spec, currently arguably THE most popular PvP spec for PTs. Then look up Taugrim's "Iron Fist" spec, which is also a hybrid.

 

Yes, as PT you put a few points into skills that are affected by the stance. But the MAIN skills, like Prototype Particle Acceperator, do NOT require a specific stance.

 

Superheated Gas and Superheated Rail are good examples. Yes, both benefit from Combustible Gas stance. But the Superheated Rail functions just fine without Combustible Gas stance.

 

And Iron Fist spec uses Retractable blade, which is 11 points into Prototype and does not require a cylinder to function.

 

But mark my words - if they are doing it to us, then Powertechs are likely next on the list.

[1.2 Hybrid]

Nope. It doesn't benefit from Energize either (the second Shock can crit on its own, but it doesn't get auto-crit).

 

Yeah, I was just reading that too. But apparently it does eat a second charge of Recklesness? Doesn't really matter though, I suppose.

 

The more I look at Sins in 1.1.2, the more I realize 31 Darkness is the way to go. Madness looks much better, but there's just way too much utility in Darkness to give up. And survivability should go through the roof if played right. I'm now thinking that 1.1.3 might even bring a nerf to it in some form.

[1.2 Hybrid]

But, 31/0/10 will be the new IT PvP build period. Its faster Harnessed Shadows(3 stacks) pushes it past 27/0/14, and it has similar AoE utility, and better utility overall because of the 30% AoE slow.

 

Yep. Not to mention Force Pull and Spike out of stealth on 30 sec CD. Pushes it way beyond any hybrid, when you consider it as a single package. What I mean is, Spike has a very nice synergy with the Force Lightning. You can make sure they stay where they are, and fry them. You can also make sure they can't CC you while you do it.

[Dear Bioware: Light armor PANTS!]

That's just a piss poor idea, to dissect the mods from the high end pvp/pve armor the cost is ~26,000 credits to take off... Sorc's be it TOR or any other media are always portrait using robes so deal with it. As for assassins, a robe/skirt gives more flexibility in comparison to pants which restrict your movement..

 

A SHORT skirt, like a kilt, I will give you that. I kinda wish kilts were more popular where I live - really comfy during warm season and I have the legs for it. But a full skirt down to your ankles? HELL NO.

[1.2 Hybrid]

Will the second shock skill in the madness tree proc another stack of harnessed darkness?

 

Don't know, I don't have it yet (1 more level to go).

 

Good question though. If it does, rotation would be even easier.

1. Wither to reduce incoming damage and slow the enemy.

2. Thrash until Energize procs.

3. Recklessness.

4. Shock

4a. If second Shock procs, then Force Lightning.

4b. If it doesn't, Thrash until another Energize, then Shock, and again Force Lightning.

5. Repeat the above, minus the Recklessness which is on CD.

[I heard Marauders are underpowered. I don't think so!]

I'd like to see something like what Juggernauts got, where we can refresh the cooldown on leap by using another ability.

 

That would work. Or an ability or talent, similar to Entrench on Sniper or Hydraulic Overrides on Prototype Powertech that grant temporary immunity.

 

OR, you know, maybe make it so that the further we are away from somebody, the greater the chance of deflecting blaster bolts with our lightsaber.

 

I would take that even as an activated ability, say 5 seconds where you block ranged damage, on 1 min CD. I'd take it. Even 3 min CD, I'd still take it. I mean, on my Sin, Force Shroud is 5 seconds of 100% immunity to tech/force (which includes CC) on 45 sec CD. Why not us?

 

Also a pull would be amazing. Sometimes enemy is bunched up, and leaping into them so you do at least SOME damage is suicide because of chain CC and quick death. But if you could yank one out to where you want him, that would be fantastic.

 

But I'm just dreaming, of course. Bioware has their own ideas about eveything. Or rather poorly copies stuff from WoW.

[1.1.2 Marauder/Sentinel changes are dps LOSS not increase]

This.... did marauders really need a dps boost they were already quite a bit ahead of Jugg dps, raid desirable, and competitive.

 

Nope, they didn't need it. And I have a Mara myself.

 

What Maras did need, first and foremost, was quality of life tweaks and making their priority rotation a tad less complex.

 

I'm getting horrible flashbacks from WoW while I'm reading what Bioware is doing. It's like WoW mages saying "Please, give us some survivability." And Blizz says "What's that? You want more damage? You got it!" And mages again go "No more damage, please, just some more survivability." And Blizz says "We hear you, MOAR DAMAGE, coming right up!" This is back in the day when a hunter pet could solo a mage with Beast Wrath. Exactly what Bioware is doing now.

 

I mean, I get that they're using some internal metrics. But when will they learn that actually playing the game and seeing what works in the real world is the only answer? Metrics always tell only part of the story.

[Can we please have a new Assassin class designer?]

I guess its time to break out the marauder...DOH.

 

So funny you said that. I'm leveling mine right now as well. There's really precious little they can do to mess up that class.

 

It doesn't tank, it doesn't heal, it doesn't have CC and not much of utility (long cooldown), and it already wears medium armor. Short of stripping it naked or nerfing its damage to nothing, there's nothing they can do to wreck it.

 

Really, probably the safest class to play right now, aside from Sorc and Merc which seem to be nerf-immune because they form the bulk of the player base and BW won't risk nerfing them any time soon.

[1.2 Hybrid]

Every Shock gives you a guaranteed Harnessed Darkness +1. In next patch, every Wither will give you a guaranteed Harnessed Darkness +1. So, Shock->Wither->Shock->Force Lightning, with Thrash or whatever in between.

 

Shock is on 6 sec CD, Wither is on 8 sec CD.

If you go Shock at 0 sec

Wither at 1.5 sec

Thrash, which has 50% chance to reset the cooldown of Shock because of Energize AND make it a guaranteed crit at 3 seconds.

If Thrash procs Energize, before you Shock, use Recklesness, it'll give that shock a +50% damage.

And then channel Force Lightning, which will be immune to interruption, and have 30m range and +60% crit due to remaining one charge of Recklesness, do 75% more damage AND heal you for 12% of your total HP.

 

You can still be CCd when doing Force Lightning, such as knockback, stun, etc. But these things add resolve. So next time you do it (which will be quick, your Shock and Wither will have reset by now), you will be immune to CC as well.

 

This is all guesswork. Currently it takes quite a bit longer to build the full stack of Harnessed Darkness, and it falls off too quick. In next patch, the buff will stay 30 seconds, which is also nice.

 

Overall, the spec looks beastly right now. Healing and tanking and mobility (Force Speed on 20 sec CD and removes roots when used) and decent damage all in one package.

 

And of course those guaranteed Shock crits with Energize from Thrash? They proc Exploitive Strikes in Madness tree, increasing your melee crit by 9%.

 

Bottom line, 31/0/10 is looking GOOD next patch. Deception still looks like crap. Madness? I haven't done it on a Sin, only Sorc. On a Sorc it's pretty beastly. But they can hybrid any way they like, because they don't have stances.

 

At level 40, in PvE, my 3-stack FL did about 2-3k damage over 3 seconds. According to a guildie, at 50 he can get up to 7k damage out of it.

[We are the laughing stock of PvP]

1. We are generally targeted first and ganked upon (being considered an easy kill)

 

I'm generally targeted first, regardless of the class I play. I can't be allowed to run free, because I WILL ruin your day.

 

2. We are not the highest DPS, yet we are strictly a dps class... sacrificing a shield (and Heavy Armor) for a second lightsaber that doesn't pay for itself in damage--The main hand being the primary damage dealer.

 

We are not highest DPS? I don't know. Without combat logs it's hard to say, but I'm pretty sure my Mara has highest sustained DPS of any class I played so far. But a fairly considerable margin of 10-15%, at the minimum.

 

Shields are virtually useless in PvP. You'll see many tanks (especially Sin tanks) dropping it in favour of focus offhand. Armor is highly overrated as well, and heavy armor is but one step removed from medium. Go look at Deception Sins running around in light, and also in melee range with a lot less susained DPS if you want to see broken.

 

3. We are a melee dominate class, losing much opportunity to ranged, kiters, and players good at staying behind us (Force Scream hard to get off/interrupts Ravage) We also need to build rage to deal burst DPS (a pain when taking damage well before we get into melee range)

 

Maras are one of the few classes that is hard/impossible to kite. We do lose the ability to shoot from range. But we can cover 30m nearly instantly every 10-15 seconds, depending on spec this can be done twice back to back. Conveniently enough, our gap closer also generates rage for the initial burst.

 

4. no CC's; no push/pulls

 

Plenty of CC. Choke, AoE fear, slow, roots, slice droid. Any more than that, and the class might be overpowered.

 

Although, truth be told, I would LOOOOVE a pull spell with a 30m range, so I could set up delicious 1v1s. Yum... Too bad it's never going to happen.

 

5. Priority rotations with difficult CDs and timings

 

True. And I hoped when Bioware said they knew about it about a month ago they would actually...like...DO something about it? I guess I was expecting too much.

 

No amount of Resolve mastery, mobility, and skill can answer 2 CC's and a world of burst DPS from 2+ PvPers singling a mara out (no I am not isolated going 1v3 I have my team, i am just the priority target)

 

When 2-3 people single you down, you DIE. It doesn't matter what class you are. You're dead. D.E.A.D. Dead. As it should be. If you are being guarded and healed though, those people are in for some serious *** forking. It's called TEAMWORK. T.E.A.M. W.O.R.K. The 2-3 guys focusing you, they're doing it right. Your team letting you die does not.

 

P.S. Spec Annihilation.

[So the newly 50's expect to be treated like royalty because?]

Probably because newer 50s don't have the luxury of exploits that older 50s used to gear up?

[1.2 Hybrid]

my play style is more melee. I prefer a rotation of thrashes, shock, and mauls rather than lightning.

 

I only really use lightning in conjunction with reckless to finish off fleeing enemies.

 

Oh, yeah...who needs uninterruptible Force Lightning doing 25-75% more damage and potentially healing you for up to 12% of your total HP over 3 seconds?

[Swtor paladin = assassin ?]

Grats to everyone who plays 31/0/10? that still doesn't mean this patch is good for our class.

 

Yeap, that's the spec I've been using, and come the patch I'll still be able to play my Sin. Guys I know who were playing other specs though, especially hybrids, are all rerolling as of last night. Some going PT, some going Jugg. Though I fear we're just the first.

[1.2 Hybrid]

People need to calm the heck down. 1.2 isn't "killing" the hybrid builds

 

There's a point where hybrids are made "less powerful" enough to make them dead. Dead, after all, is nothing more than "less powerful than alive".

[Fastest leveling spec for Marauder?]

I went Annihilation and I'm a whirlwind of death with zero downtime. Pushing 40 now, no issues whatsoever.

 

Rage might be good, though from what I hear Rage doesn't really start to work until level 30+, while Annihilation is practically complete by level 20.

[Assassin's need some love!! <3]

no madness because i have no intention of ever going it =) if i wanted to cast a bunch of pretty spells i would have made a sorc

 

Madness needs another DoT. Sorcerers get Affliction at level 16, and that makes all the difference. Between Affliction, Death Field, Crushing Darkness and no cooldown on Force Lightning, they're doing OK. Us? Not enough tools to really make the spec shine. Some people do OK with it, but they'd do just as well or better with another spec, they're just good players.

[Assassin changes a welcome sight.]

Yeah, OP? I'm with the first response guy on this one...

 

/facepalm, just..../facepalm

 

And while you're at it, stop and realize that damage spec Juggs will still make tons of medals, they can still switch stances on a whim and 2.5k damage single hit is a joke to them with Rage spec, they can do two or three times that to up to 5 people every 10 seconds or so. And damage spec PTs will still make tons of medals. While you, the Assassin, will be seriously screwed next patch.

 

Welcome changes? Sigh...yeah, OK. Fine. One thing to welcome from all this is that Assassins will become quite rarer. People who don't feel like playing a tank will just go and play something else that's still not broken.

[Could it be, tryin got kill Hybrid but possibly fail???]

You can't just look at Wither as damage.

 

Wither is -5% damage debuff to all it hits. Add to it your taunt, -30%. Add to it your guard (on what they're attacking), for -55%. Toss in Discharge for -5% accuracy to boot. Whoever is being attacked is now immortal until you die. If you do this, the ball carrier can take STUPID amounts of punishment for a very long time (12+ seconds). Not to mention give you 3 medals in about 5 seconds...

 

Yes, Wither is only 5% of it, but 5% is 5%. It's a flat reduction to all damage. If you spec for damage reduction talents like Sith Defiance, that 5% would cost you 5 talent points, with any class. But Wither costs you 1 point, and it's an AoE.

 

It does some damage. Yeah, it's not Death From Above, but it adds up.

 

And finally, 30% AoE slow? For a whopping 15 seconds? Longest duration slow I know of is 12 seconds. This is 15. And AoE. Considering currently slows are not part of the Resolve system, and are not affected by it (AFAIK), that's amazing in group PvP at least.

 

When patch hits, I'm 31/0/10, for damn sure. Hell, I'm there already.

[Can we please have a new Assassin class designer?]

Dude, you HAVE to lay off your hate against Deception

...

...

...

Seriously, Pure Deception assassins are dead meat without Dark charge

 

You say this, and they you're surprised why I and so many others are hating on Deception?

 

It's a joke spec. Light armor and melee? Don't float. Not unless you have insane burst or godly defensive cooldowns. Deception has neither.

[Please don't wreck Charge dancing...]

There's basically no good reason to 'charge dance' in the game as is anyway. The biggest draw would be to throw Dark Charge up from a DPS spec and most of the time you need the mitigation, you'd be better off anticipating your escape strategy.

 

How about helping your TEAM?!

 

Whenever I find myself suddenly next to a ball carrier, even in DPS spec, I immediately go defensive and guard. That's 55% damage mitigation for him right there, plus taunts for another 30%.

 

They're taking all of this away from US. While allowing Juggs and PTs to contunue. No fair.

[Can we please have a new Assassin class designer?]

Marauders are going to get a helpful DPS increase of 8% to their bleeds. Which make up a substantial amount of their dps. Additionally their bleeds deal proper crit damage.

 

Some guys did the math, and it could actually be a nerf to DPS. See the test server forum. I haven't looked into it myself, it's past midnight here and I'm asleep, but looks solid at a glance.

 

Not sure how much this will affect their dps.

 

Annihilation? Probably a bit. Maybe 1-3% overall DPS increase. It doesn't solve ANY of the problems plaguing the class though, like ludicrously complex rotations, overdependence on defensive cooldowns and all the rest of it. When a few weeks back, when they were buffing Juggs, they said they recognized Marauder rotation was a mess and they needed some quality of life changes...silly me...I actually believed them!

 

Back to the Sins though. Someone on PvP forum said something that really resonated with me. With Guild Wars 2 coming this year, probably in summer, Bioware doesn't have much time. So they will cater as much as they can to the most played classes, to retain the max number of subs. That means no nerfs to Sorcerers, Mercs and other popular classes. And nerfs or tweaks to everything else. Sins were never the most played class, so messing around with the class isn't going to result in many ragequits. And they HAVE to mess with someone, otherwise what are they going to put in the patch notes?

 

So...yeah. Not happy. But at leas they haven't wrecked Powertechs yet. So I can at least play that.

[Pyro PVP, What Class Do You Struggle Wth?]

im really having a hard time seeing pyro as a monster

 

The trick is to SIGNIFICANTLY outgear the people you're killing, and telling yourself it's not the gear, it's your mad skills and amazing spec that are doing it.

[Upcoming Sith Inquistor Changes]

Patch notes made me giggle. They took an already not too popular class nobody complained about, and nerfed the heck out of its hybrid specs. Woo. Good thinking. Meanwhile, Sorcerers and Mercs, classes everyone plays and there's tons of complaints about continue to do what they do.

 

You know, I have a sinking suspicion devs are all playing Sorcerers and Mercs. It's just too obvious now. Operatives wrecked both - nerf Operatives.

[Anni Marauders getting a buff...on test now proof inside.]

Yup buff the tree that is already doing well. Good thinking bioware.

 

Be happy that's all they're doing. Go look at Assassin notes - all their fun hybrid specs just got neutered with dull gardening shears.