I've read about all of the changes to classes/specs in 2.0, but didn't end up testing much on the pts. What's being considered as the "FOTM" spec/class in 2.0 as of now? What rankings for PVE dps are people assuming? I'm just wondering what classes I should be dusting off a bit for 2.0.

I'll try to pvp a bit more now that this is done! I liked the agent one the best imo, but each one had perks. I'll try knight or smuggler I think... don't enjoy the consular one atm, and I'm on act 3.

Yeah it's been at 50 for a long time. Which ones are the better ones? I have a sage and gunslinger atm but not 50 yet.

All eight imperial 50s! I guess it's time for me to work more on some republic toons... http://i.imgur.com/zYyi7nr.jpg I made a video of my 50 warzone on the jugg too. Ran out of space on the SSD because I forgot that I should've cleared some space for a video... I'll upload something of it eventually anyway. ^.^

I've been a bit busy lately, but my schedule's better now so I'll be up for joining any ranked teams whenever. Need to pvp more. ... I'm thinking of getting a pub to 50 too.... no, can't give in to the pressure! .... if I did though what would be best? My only pub is a mid level sage as a crafting toon atm. I'd probably make a new toon...

Well I guess I could pick up that killing blows record for the moment. Killing blows: 31 http://i.imgur.com/fNJX9.jpg EDIT: I think I have one for solo kills too, from deception recently... Let's see if I screened... Well I guess I didn't screen that, but I found another killing blows one. Killing blows: 27 http://i.imgur.com/eN7Mb.jpg

Yay, more good people coming back The new warzone is a lot of fun too on the pts, I should be playing a lot more pvp when it comes out in 1.6.

I can confirm that death field has no effect on the data cores. After reading this thread, I went dps and did the fight as a madness assassin, and I had to take death field out of my rotation while attacking the cores, which seriously annoyed me. When you use DF on a core, it takes no damage, acting as if it wasn't hit with anything.

Got a 7036 hit with maul on a sage. This is actually my 2nd highest hit I've gotten, but my first one I didn't end up SSing since it was a killing blow, and therefore didn't show all of it on the scoreboard. Was 7087, though. Anyway, here: http://i.imgur.com/133g5.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/133g5.jpg Highest hit

I hit a sage for 7087 today. I'm assuming he was in pve gear as well as his whole premade, considering I was getting insane hits all game. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200ZfGrRkfMRbkZf0c.2

This is still my best for overall dmg (possibly dps too). 912k total and over 1k dps http://i.imgur.com/R2gFE.jpg I don't check my dps much but when I get decently high numbers I'll mouse over dps and SS, and the dps here isn't bad either way. From the end of July I'm pretty sure. I'm still waiting for some extremely long, drawn-out Alderaan or Novare but never get them. :/ ....and I'll start looking at my dps more lol, I may have topped that since then.

I can make: - Black Hole Duelist's MK-1 Implant - Black Hole Pummeler's MK-1 Package Mats only but tips are appreciated! Will be REing more implants soon.

I actually came from Keller's Void during the first set of transfers in June, but thanks I AM imp side though, may be why you haven't seen me around.

Madness spec (assassin) in some pug. http://i.imgur.com/R2gFE.jpg

^ I like this way of thinking. A free bump for you!

I'm not trying to steal a spot or anything, as I see that LEGION already posted... However, my guild "That's No Goon" has had HM EC on farm for months, and we're trying to find another 8 man team to group with. The first 3 bosses were on farm for a while, and we killed HM Kephess for the first time on July 2. We've had him on farm since then. On their mains everyone's full campaign with bh sprinkled in when it's BiS. Everyone has geared offspecs, too, and many people have geared alts. Geared being full BH optimized. Nothing else to do with the comms. But yeah, if you're interested, my main is Fanatic, assassin.

^ This! ----- We had to switch some people around on Wednesday for HM EC, and as a result we had 4 melee dps (oh no!). We did wipe twice on Zorn and Toth, which we normally always one-shot. The only reason it took that long was because of the healers being unaccustomed to the 4 melee dps, and the two melee dps on Zorn being unaccustomed to being on zorn and getting fearful (me being one of them, I switched to dps, my offspec, to dps instead of normally tanking). After having some practice, I'm certain we could one-shot Zorn and Toth with all melee dps next time. We just needed some practice. We had more dps that normal it seemed (noticed for certain as we were DPSing the walker on Kephess), and the rest of the raid after Zorn and Toth was easy. ---------- For Lost Island, sure the first boss might be a bit more hectic with melee dps, but that's part of the fun. I always run HM LI with 2 melee dps, and we always one shot everything. It's not overly difficult with good players. -------- I think that while melee dps may be harder to run with than ranged dps, once your melee dpsers know their classes well and know what to expect, and the healers know what to expect damage-wise, you'll be putting out more dps than with ranged dps, will run into no problems (as you do with decent ranged dps most of the time), and will have more mobile dps that perform better than ranged dps in fights where mobility is king.

When they release NiM, will there be any new gear to gain from it? Or is it just a bragging rights (titles, etc.) thing? Have they mentioned any new gear?

Well my raid group has two assassin tanks (me being one of them). We just focus target swap and force speed + jump onto the other tank, then taunt.

As an assassin tank myself, when I do HM (I start on stormcaller) I have to guard the arsenal merc + use recklessness at the beginning, or he'll pull aggro at the beginning. After that, no problems keeping aggro.

Well, with assassins, we have the madness tree which is awesome for AOE damage. I agree, though, deception (single-target-burst tree) needs some buffing a bit. :$ Tank is very effective too, but somewhat boring to play. Madness is just awesome for damage, though... Can't do this with many other specs... http://i.imgur.com/R2gFE.jpg ...I could've hit a million damage if I didn't get interrupted near the end.

That reply didn't help the OP or anyone at all, and is completely incorrect.

---------------- That's the one thing I'm wondering... should I take out some HP augments and put in some secondary stat ones?... I'm pretty much full campaign, just missing a (61) armoring on my orange bracers. Health: 26927 (with Rakata Fortitude Stim and BH buff) Armor: 6112 Damage Reduction: 40.14% (Total DR with set bonus and the spec buff in the darkness tree) Defense Chance: 30.12% (Total including bonus from fortitude stim) Shield Chance: 65.38% (with Dark ward) Absorb Rating: 50.16% normally, 64.66% with relic proc (proc is active pretty much every 3/10 of the time)

I tank in PVE content, and I play all specs in PVP. PVE: Fully augmented Campaign Survivor's gear. PVP: 92 valor, fully augmented War Hero Stalker's gear, and halfway through the War Hero Survivor's set as well. 1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes? Darkness (PVE): In PVE, people consider us to be more suited to an off-tank role because of the nerf to the armor and self-heals. They believe that nerfing both the armor and self-healing was too much, and I agree, to an extent. Some people are over-reacting to the nerfs, though, and aren't allowing assassin tanks to raid with them. Darkness (PVP): In PVP, people consider us an awesome jack-of-all-trades spec, but not overpowered (as they were considering us before). It's a great spec to play in PVP, but personally can get fairly boring. It's very effective, though. Deception (PVP): This is considered a horrible PVP spec, and I agree. We just don't have enough burst in our burst + not enough utility/ defenses. You can burst down sith sorcerers fairly quick if it's just you against them in this spec, but pretty much anything else is going to give you a hard time if they're attacking you as you're fighting them. Madness (PVP): People have started switching to this spec to dps, since it's a more viable PVP spec (when comparing it to deception). Everyone recognizes the damage potential of this spec, and consider it a balanced PVP spec. 2. How do you perceive your own spec? Darkness (PVE): I consider my PVE spec to be a viable tank, but we may require a bit more gear to be as effective as other tanking classes. Although I didn't want to see my class nerfed (who doesn't?), I'm content with the changes and haven't noticed too much of a difference in PVE survivability. I'm still main-tanking perfectly fine! Darkness (PVP): While this class is effective, the rotation is quite boring and easy to play, and I only spec into darkness to pvp if I'm needed in that role. It's definitely effective, though. Deception (PVP): I leveled as deception, and stayed with it until almost 80 valor. I was getting frustrated with the lack of survivability, lack of reliable, high burst (the cannon aspect of this glass cannon class seemed to be not as powerful as it should be), and the fact that after I performed my rotation, I generally was stuck attempting to run away and then dying as there was no ability that let me stealth away after every fight (the current stealth we have on the 2min cooldown doesn't cut it, and even when I use it, it breaks unless I cleanse the dots on me, which requires another cooldown). I kept going, however, because it was still fun (and still is, but not as much after I've seen what the other specs have to offer). Now, though, I barely ever play it because of the 0 viability it has. This spec needs something major reworked. Initially, I envied operatives for the fact that they could pop out of stealth, knock you down and decimate your health and down you very quickly. With deception assassins, we knock you down, we start setting up our burst, but before we can get it all off the person is already up and kicking our butts. If we do end up getting it off it's never enough to kill them, and we get annihilated by the other person because of our survivability. We need an initial attack that knocks down the target for more than spike does, hurts major damage, and helps us set up the rest of the burst that's about to come (procs?). We also need another defensive cooldown that helps us survive that onslaught after the person gets up and starts attacking. Madness(PVP): This spec is fantastic, and although a bit more survivability would be nice, it's fine the way it is. ---------------------------- The bottom line is, deception needs a buff. I'm sure you designers have thought about this and are wondering if it needs a buff. For some reason, you seem reluctant to do anything to help this class perform to standard in pvp, and it's fairly frustrating. If a deception assassin was supposed to perform like an effective hit-and-run class, as you say, something went very wrong with the design. Deception was a fun class to play, albeit not very effective. Now, after seeing what the other specs have to offer, it's much less fun, and very frustrating to try to play effectively. Something needs to change.