FWIW, you're about 3 weeks behind me. I loved Shadow and the concept behind this game, but BW has successfully screwed it to the point i'm not going to pay to play anymore. Like you, Rateds, cross server queuing (PvP and PVE), poor economy, and lack of anything original (aside from Space AIDS) is what did it.

I'm liking the Akira build, I think i'll try that out for a week or so and see how things go.

You don't need anymore than about 1100 Exp. as Inf. Trust me, it won't make of a difference between being hit for 1200 vs. 1250/1300. You're still squishy, you're better off to hit them harder with more power.

This is the problem with PvP in general... 1. Nice Zerg, way to show/have skill. After all you don't need it you've got 8 people beating on 1 person. If your team is really good you can zerg down 2 people at once! 2. See point 1. 3. See point 1. Yes, join your team because heaven forbid they can't do anything with out you or you without them... 4. Agreed 5. There is a point of no return, once you hit that...you might as well stack up. 6. This should be, use CC correctly. 7. Per captain obvious tips...lol, this is obvious.

Inquiring minds want to know

Agreed, I like to have mine just because i'm anal about it to around 25% buffed. The rest into power.

Truthfully, the spec is junk. 2 points in Force Focus are a waste as you'll always be in Shadow Technique. 1 point in Misdirection needs to be 3. 2 points in Shadowy Veil need to be removed (it's junk for Inf.) and put into misdirection. 2 points in double bladed defense are a waste as you're dps not a tank, so you won't be clocking or parrying anything. You'd be better off putting those 2 points into expertise or elusiveness 2 points in situational awareness are useless as well. http://db.darthhater.com/skill_calc/jedi_consular/shadow/#::e4fe4fe3fe2fe2f5ef2ef7ef7ef14 This is what I use and it hits like a truck when using Clairvoyant Strike (main attack), when using Force Breach, Shadow Strike, Spinning Strike, and Project...

I VERY rarely if ever get beat by a balance shadow as inf. Balance burst is nothing compared to Inf and I gib them all the time in 3 globals max if my cool downs are available. If they're all down, yes Balance will win. Even if I have half my cool downs i'm looking at better than a 80% win against them.

Your spec is ok, though it depends on if you are PVP or PVE for the spec to work correctly: PVP: Remove the 2 points in Expertise and put it in Elusiveness. The increase in survivability with a 20sec Force Speed and 45 sec. CD for Resilience is huge in PVP, worth much more than 25% chance to do 6% more damage * Play style: The 2 points in situational awareness move to Celerity. The 2 points in Kinetic Field move to fade. With my gear currently : 1520 WP, 71% surge, 30% crit, and 480 power. Against non-tanks i'll hit with CS for 1200-1400. Project between 4-4.5k, and FB over 4.5-5k, SS: 4k, spin strike: 4700 Jugs and Tank Shadows: about 30% less than that. play style in pvp is essentially using cs as much as possible because you're effectively a chainsaw chewing through people. People don't last long with this spec when using CS. You aren't forced to burst someone down to kill them. CS against non-tanks is unhealable. The only issue is force management if you decide not to burst them down.

To add more to my post, you're going to have to sit there and bang with them until they pop it. If you're going toe to toe with them it sounds counter intuitive to do that but as I mentioned before it's the only thing you can do. If they go into a ravage/MS, don't turn and run from them...run strait through them. So many times I see people try and soak that damage or back peddle. If you see that channel, run strait.

If they pop Guarded and they have no resolve at all...you CC them, they pop cc break, you cc/kb/mez them again. That will fill their resolve but they've been stopped. Also, as noted if they pop guarded at 10% health, you only need to 5% (roughly 1-2k damage) and they're dead. If they pop guarded at anything above 10% you just effectively had them nuke themselves and you're even more ahead. Hence why I said originally, keep the resolve as low as possible.

I've read the all the threads (all 30 pages) in this topic and there are parts where i think some people are giving the marauder/sent a 31/31/31 spec like they do with KC/Darkness shadows. Point in fact as I do play a Inf/Dec shadow (the real dps tree of shadow/assassin) is this from MY point of view: Cliff Notes: Seriously, learn how to beat them 1v1 and quit calling for nerfs...nerfs only hurt a game. As another melee DPS (INF/DEC) , CD for CD the marauder/sent is a better AC currently do to its survivability and increased utility it brings to an Op or rated team when compared directly to the Inf/Dec shadow/assassin. The 5 second 99% damage that sents/marauders have is fine. All AC's have a method of controlling this: Stun, KB, Mez, slow, or other combination of the sort in their AC. The key to beating all sents/marauders 1 v.1 is forcing them to pop their cool downs EARLY and to keep their resolve low so when they do start using them you can counter. Sounds easier than it is in reality or in the ebb and flow of a PvP battle. My biggest problem with this AC (again from the dps tree of shadow/assassin NOT the OP tank version) is the bubble they get that refreshes itself and stays up for 15 seconds if being continually hit by a melee attack that causes damage to the person hitting them not sure what its called) When that is used while i'm on them, i'm done for. The only option I have for that is to stealth and stay away until its down for the next "X" number of seconds. The only issue to doing that though for it to work, I must have 2 cool downs available. 1 - force cloak so I can go invisible, and 2 - reslience so I can cleanse the dots (depending on spec). If i don't have those available, i'll be popped out of stealth and they're back on me at which point i'm then left with stuns and/or KB which I try to save for other CD's of theirs. As another melee who must get into the thick of things to do my damage, I do not have the survivability that Sents do...plain and simple. Those calling for Nerf's, understand this: 1. The up time/ToT that a sent/marauder has on ANY target is very high. 2. They do as much sustained damage as any other dps AC in the game...contrary to popular belief its not as high as some would suggest it is....training dummies aren't a good indicator of DPS for any class. 3. The sheer number of cool downs they have to get out of trouble or to stay in the fight longer is amazing, and played by the right person is in truth awesome to watch. As a bonus, those saying this is the new FOTM, please understand that you're perpetuating a self-fulfilling prophecy by continually stating this. Again, just my opinion...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=swtor+datacron+locations

If you could try this one: 7/31/3 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601McMZhGrRkhMbtzZc.1 Same gearing/rotation as you would with any Inf.

Nice video as always, and I must say that i've learned a lot from you regarding "rotation/priority" etc. The only thing I disagree with on this though is the spec that you use for Inf. Like you I stared using the 2/31/8 spec from the beginning, and I absolutely loved the burst potential that it has. My problem with it though is when setting up for burst. I essentially have a 45% chance to do an extra 2-2.5k damage every 10 seconds due to upheaval. Instead of putting my points into upheaval I did this spec: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601McMZhGrRkhMbtzZc.1 What i've found out by using that spec instead is that I lose the burst potential (yes I know burst is king in PVP) with the extra rock, I gain though about 4-500 extra white damage per CS. In that same cool down time of 10 seconds I'm not doing about 2.6k-3.3k of guaranteed damage. I also gained additional survivability by the decrease in cool downs for resilience and force speed. Against tank armor that i'm trying to chew threw like vanguards/KC shadows i'm hitting much harder and its almost a winable scenerio for me. Now, my gear is no where near what yours is, i'm just BM with a the Force Healer earpiece. I would imagine with your gear levels you would do even more and it would make the numbers even better. Here is my gearing below for your comparison. http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/749a9239-675e-4f1f-805a-91419afaebe7 If you could give it a try and let me know your thoughts on it i'd appreciate it.

As a partial War Hero, I actually enjoy snipers. They fall fairly quickly to me.

No stims, though i'm not sure it would have a 100dps increase without using stims. it could though. Thanks for the test though, it confirms what i'd thought for a while.

Let me preface my reply by stating I play an Inf Shadow and have from day 1. Currently valor 65, ALL received via WZ's. Your thread has some merit, but some of the abilities you're speaking about would also affect the shadow/sin tree as they're baseline abilities for Consular/Inq 1. Tumult I can think of no reason for a mage/force wielding ranged class to have a melee ability Your proposed change here would give Sage/Sorc access to talents already in the Shadow//Sin tree effectively giving Inf/Deception 2 kicks with different cool downs one in stealth the other not, and Kenetic/? (forgot Sith tree name) 2 kicks all of which are available out of stealth. - Tumult would make Shadow OP and Kenetic even more OP than it already is. 2. CC: Increasing the CD on the stun timer, nerfs Inf/Dec. As it is we're the squishiest melee class in the game. When we go to cloak, if we don't want to get popped from it we need to use our resiliance along with it. Killing our stun timer would decrease the already pathetic survivability of the Inf/Dec tree. 3. Doublestrike/Saber Strike. Refer to what I said about tumult. There is no reason to have a force wielding ranged caster with a melee ability. That is crossing pretty close to the inf/dec tree. 4. Deflection: Again, this is a talent that comes from Shadow/Sin. I'll trade you your bubble for my deflection. It's a 50% increase to defense, not an blanket barrier to receiving damage. In other words, adding deflection would make the defenses of sage more OP than they already are. At the end of the day, there is nothing really wrong with the CC and/or damage that Sages do from my perspective though you disagree. The only thing that I would do if I were going to change something about sage/sorc is I would make it so an AOE will not keep someone from capping a node but that affects multiple classes, not just sages.

If you wanna talk least survivable, try playing an Inf/Deception Shadow/Assassin

Actually, I pug all the time...even since patch 1.2 went live. Of the 50ish battles i've been in. I've won 11. That was the first day or so, not one this weekend, not one healer this weekend in any wz i've been in, and sents and knights, and their counter parts are tearing stuff up. This from most likely the only inf shadow left on the server that PVP's.

What was the class quest? I remember a class quest like that on Belsavis I believe. Granted I was playing as a Shadow(inf) my problem was my healer couldn't keep me up. The way I solved it was by using my CC and playing like my class is supposed to be played instead of the mind numbing hack and slash it was until then. I believe the class quest was Attis Station or something along those lines. I wound up soloing it, but I did die a few times before I finally wised up.

Care to elaborate?

um...I'm an Inf...what makes you think i don't taunt? It's a baseline skill. If you're referring to FB, I still use it as well.

With gear you get 3 charges of FP so all 3 will crit.

I prefer Inf over Kenetic...the way I figure it my "defense" comes in my ability to burst someone down so quickly my short(lack of) cool down's won't matter.