This should have been in the patch notes. 0-30 Force Leap was a BIG factor in why I liked this spec so much, as it was unequaled in its ability to interrupt. Burns are fine in long battles, but Watchman rotations are not appropriate for story progression since the fights rarely last long enough for DoTs to matter. I'll try it, but I have a feeling I'm going to end up respecing to Combat in light of this change.

You will be fine until level 60 if you are following the Shadow of Revan storyline. You get enough equipment through the quests that you won't need to buy anything or grind for anything until after you hit 60.

Really, no accuracy? I thought, with Deception being a front loaded, heavy burst class that relies on melee attacks it would need Accuracy more than any other class, since a miss or two will get you killed.

Thanks. Not much meat there, though...

I just read the responses to the Sage questions, but either we got skipped or I totally missed the responses to the Shadow/Assassin community.

I take it our 'answers' are in the PTS feedback threads, since the patch and discussion seem to address, or at least acknowledge, the questions posted.

Wow. That didn't last long. Did something happen to cause a meltdown? Just one round of questions and they shut it down?

Thanks. I take it this round of questions is the only set since the first round?

I've been out of the loop, basically since around 2.5. Where can I find any answered 3 questions since then? When is the next batch due? For what it is worth, I don't distinguish between Shadow and Assassin, so treat them as one in the same for the purpose of this thread.

My faith is shot. I'm tired of fruitless "investigations" and nerf hammers, and BW implements them in the heaviest sorts. I do not trust them to fix it, nor to fix it well in the event that they try. Consequently, I have unsubscribed.

Frankly, I couldn't care less about nerfing Juggernauts. What I do care about is equal opportunity tanking. Paradoxically, Shadows/Assassins continue to have the highest AVERAGE mitigation profile, but the spikiness sort of invalidates that, for a lot of reasons that have been discussed at length. The only ability I can think of in the Juggernaut profile that I honestly think is overpowered is Saber Reflect, and even then if everybody had one that worked equally well, I'll be quiet and go home. It's all about giving every class the same opportunity, and right now Shadows can get one shotted from 80% by some attacks, and even barring that, a lot of healers just hate them. The spikiness is just too stressful.

The reason why you don't invest any gear toward crit or alacrity isn't because they aren't valuable. The fact is, the returns on the gear's itemization is so small that the points are better put into Accuracy, Surge, and Power. Even so, the talent trees essentially give you free boosts.

You still haven't explained the limitations and struggles of the Juggernaut that validates your insistence that they are not stronger than the other tanks. I have tanks of every flavor, and my guardian and Juggernaut (I have at least one of each) are way easier to keep up their HP than the tank equivalent. The healers in my guild agree. They have had a Shadow tank in their progression raid since forever, and she is no longer allowed to Main Tank. They only keep her at all out of loyalty to the player. It is also interesting to note that the Shadows aren't even generally talking about an outright buff to the tanking tree. What they want is less spikiness. Part of the solution to that is actually to nerf our self heals so that our average mitigation remains practically unchanged. I will concede that there is a lot of bitterness specifically to the Saber Reflect/Force Shroud parallel. Saber Reflect seems to be better in absolutely every way (save for the cleanse effect which doesn't actually cleanse everything as advertised), where Shroud actually fails to work at all 5% of the time. They have equal cooldowns. They are not fairly balanced. If the devs 'fixed' Shroud to actually apply 100% of the time, a lot of this would die out, but they have indicated that (incomprehensibly) this is working as intended. PS: I agree with you that the devs don't seem to know how to balance classes. They cannot grasp the concept of tweaking a class, instead preferring to reinvent the classes almost entirely from time to time.

What is your spec, opener, and rotation/priority for your abilities that you are using? If you aren't using those effectively, you can expect to die a lot. Marauders are a little on the squishy side anyway, so a few deaths are to be expected along the way. One thing I had to learn early on was look for patrolling mobs and kill them when they are isolated when possible. Most of the time, if I die, it is because of 'adds' in the form of a patrolling mob, disastrous if it is gold or silver.

Personally, I'm tired of begging. I mained a Shadow since day one. No other class really appeals to me. Today, I unsubscribed. Forum chatter falls on deaf ears. For BW/EA, it is all about the money, so I cited Shadow problems for why I am unsubbing. Maybe if they have a couple hundred quitters saying they won't pay to play until shadows are fixed they'll see the light.

So, tomorrow is the day. What do you have so far, KBN?

It has gotten so bad that I don't play much at all unless my guild needs a healer for an operation. I used to main a Shadow, but it has become my Sage healer that is my most frequently played in the end game. I geared a Guardian to tank with but I just can't bring myself to actually tank with it. If I tank, I want to tank with my Shadow, but I just can't bring myself to do that, either, so I've just stopped playing mostly. All that I do now is RP and play dolly with my toons as I grind for credits to play more dolly. That won't last forever and inevitably I'll stop playing. Yes, Bioware, the problem really is that bad. People are quitting or rerolling due to to this problem. Stop investigating it. DO something. This representative thing, while a great PR move, is shallow and mostly irrelevant. Until I read patch notes, it means nothing. PS: In reference to Kitru's post immediately before this one, it is very disheartening that not only is it bad, but it continually gets worse.

On the contrary, if the RNG is, in fact, random, then statistics will do a very good job of predicting how frequently an event or string of events will occur. Only when there is an unknown bias will statistics fail, because even known biases can be accounted for.

Simply put, all you are going to get here is. a) Scoundrel is overpowered and needs a nerf and b) If you disagree you either are trying to avoid the nerfbat personally or you need to learn to play. End of story. The whole thread is a waste of time, on both sides.

My guess is that the fix will come packaged with 2.4. If not, I'd be pretty disheartened. That comes out in what, October? That should be plenty of time to do something as simple as nerf our self heals and give us 5% more DR. I'm not sure why this hasn't been experimented on already... nor why they refuse to comment on the issue.

That is the short version of what needs to be done. Not only does self healing not scale, but the prevalence of knockbacks in Operation bosses makes Harnessed Shadows unreliable.

The shield wouldn't be worthless if you use Kinetic Ward. You'd get at least 20% shield rate out of it. More if you gear for it, but I wouldn't. It is a Force Technique spec, so no, it isn't Combat stance, nor are there enough points to get pull without sacrificing some of the DPS features of the spec. Pull isn't THAT great. Sure it is handy, but it also has a long cooldown and it doesn't compliment what this spec is all about, pressure damage and team support. I suppose if you feel really strongly about it, you could pull out one point of Upheaval for Pull. Also, keep in mind that I did not recommend this spec. I just couldn't come up with anything better in a spec that pulled from all three trees, which this one arguably doesn't since there are only 3 points in Infiltration. Really, the task of making a tribrid is a pretty daunting undertaking.

The best I was able to come up with was http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rcMsbbcZcZfMfRr0kM.3 It is designed to be DPS, but with a little tweaking it could be an off tank while PvPing. That noted, I'd expect it is sub-optimal for PvE. The best part is Force management since both the Balance and Combat trees contribute to Force regen. Obviously, the spec is designed to be used in Force Technique. I have not played this spec, so I don't vouch for its efficacy, but I imagine it might do okay in PvP. It is a pressure spec, so don't expect to be burning people down. Between spreading out your Breaches and your Force in Balance, you'll be doing a lot of damage, but don't fool yourself into thinking you'll kill any of them. You are a support role. On the flip side, you'll always have Force to keep the pressure on. This will also function as a good leveling spec, I think. Disclaimer: it isn't a true tribrid spec since I just couldn't justify putting more than 3 points into Infiltration. Also, I'm not sure whether the spec would function best with a shield or focus. Focus does more damage, shield might give moderately better survivability and Force regen. If you opt for the shield, I would move one point in the Combat tree from Shadowsight to Kinetic Ward. The extra shield chance is by far the best investment you could make if you are using a shield.

I don't know any tribrid class specs, but if I knew what the original poster had in mind I'd give it a try. Is it tanky or DPS oriented? Fair warning, if it is tanky then I don't expect it to perform well due to the loss of Slow Time, Harnessed Shadow, etc. With that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and try to put together a DPS spec building on all three trees.

Is that some sort of leveling build or is it supposed to serve a particular function? I'm pretty sure hybrids of all kinds have gone out of style in end game content.