Hey, So I haven't played my Shadow in awhile, and thought I'd come back for 1.4. I'm in full War hero, and I was infiltration spec'd previously. With the changes, what build are infiltration spec'd Shadow's using now? Also, I was considering going tank spec for PVP, is it viable to use a tank Spec with DPS pvp gear? I know Juggs/Guardians do it. Can Shadows, or will I need to get tank gear? If so, what's the tank spec people would suggest? Thanks

Awesome, that's the direction i was heading. Thanks.

So lets get right into it. On my alt, I'm a watchmen sent with 1188 exp, and 1050 power. I'm in almost full war hero, and i purchased the war hero vindicator lightsaber as my mainhand for the additional power. The only War Hero piece i never bought, was the offhand. I have the comms and I'm ready to buy it, but I was considering getting another vindicator mainhand, stripping the mods, and putting them in an offhand custom saber. Doing this would leave me needing to upgrade to 2 vindicator elite war hero sabers as well, except that neither of them have any power on them. Inf act, none of the elite war hero sabers have any power on them. Obviously I can move the enhancement mod around and keep using the old enhancement mod forever for the power, but I feel like I've got to be missing something here, if not many things. Running the numbers, I see virtually no way to come out much ahead with the new weapons. Are high rated watchmen sents out there with a viable opinion debating this same thing? Do you currently use the weaponmaster ones? Are you planning to upgrade to elite?

I fully understand the difference in duration between stuns, how to recognize which has hit me, and do indeed make a different decision based on the duration. I won't say that I always make the perfect split second decision, but most of the time I do, and when I don't, I recognize that as a mistake on my part, and not a flaw in the game mechanics. The specific case that bugs me, is when I arrive fresh off a rez at a spot with 0 resolve, and no CC break. I get hit with the first 4second, and even if I eat it, can still be hit with a full 8 second concussive round (as an example) because the 4 second isn't enough to give me full resolve, or another 4 second from a different player. Sure, when it wears off I have a nice fat resolve bar, but that's 8-12 total seconds from the point I arrive to the point I can be of any assistance.

Yeah, I feel ya. I used to get hostile when my mom ran out of coco pebbles and I was stuck eating my Dad's All Bran too. Life can be hella frustrating when you're 11,

Obviously I don't want to eliminate CC from the game. It's an enormous part of PvP strategy, But I do think devs have to be careful with abilities that eliminate a persons control of their character for long durations. 6 seconds from a single CC is fine, chained 6 second cc's because your cc breaker doesn't happen to be up is starting to push it. I don't think I'm for changes in the resolve system, but I do think Degauss should be lower in the tree to allow spec'ing for combat medics without making them give up bacta infusion to do it. I also think either dispell mechanics should be smarter and remove CC's first by default, or they should at least remove the cool down on dispell, so you can spam it to remove a CC if you're willing to use your ammo to do it.

That's an interesting suggestion, and is definitely a solution that's worth consideration.

Interested in the various opinions on this. I'm not sure I've come to a real conclusion on either side of the issue, but I think it's worth discussion. As a Commando Healer, I often encounter situations where I arrive at a point that is contested and several people are in need of healing. It's also typical and expected that I would instantly become a target for immediate CC. Usually having no resolve at the point of arrival I'm faced with a choice. Option 1: Use My CC break, hope they are bad/have their other CC's on cooldown, and try to get a few heals off before they kill my teammates or CC me again. OR Option 2: Eat the CC, hope they survive another 6 seconds so that if they CC me again, I get full resolve, can break the CC and heal. If my CC break isn't up, then I might as well have not even run down to help, since they're going to keep me CC"d the entire time it takes to finish off my teammates. Usually, option #2 is best. Even if my teammates don't make it, when I do break the second CC I'm at full health, can't be CC'd again, and depending on the situation can probably keep the enemy players off the objective until more backup arrives. Still, it's not as easy a judgement call as it sounds. In option 1, sometimes in those quick couple seconds between the point I break the CC and I get CC'd again, I can get off a bacta infusion and a kolto. Enough to keep the players around me alive until the second CC wears off. Yes, the game is about decisions, and making the right ones in the right scenario is what makes a good player. But I still can't help but feel that I'm facing this situation far more often than I did in other games, and that as a healer, I spend quite a bit more time CC'd in general. Everyone has several ways to CC you, and they correctly use the majority of them on healers. Again, I'm still undecided, but I''m starting to think that Degauss should at least be available lower in the Assault tree for Commando's (currently the lowest output PvP healers anyway (note: I'm not saying they are bad, just lower output in total healing)) so that it's a viable option for Combat medics who are willing to sacrifice something else to make reactive shield an additional CC break.

Yeah, just some thoughts, play style is very important. In past games as a healer, I generally focus on lasting as long as possible, letting my dps do the damage, and getting off as many heals as I can. You seem like you want to do some dps as well, and frankly, in this game it seems like there may be a roll for a ranged DPS that can also toss out some heals. If that's what you're planning to try out, I think we might really only need 11 points in the combat medic tree. Something like this is a build I'm planning to experiment with. http://db.darthhater.com/skill_calc/trooper/commando/#::e5f2e6fe4fefef6ef3efcfe2f2ef11ef6: That said, I still need to mess with it quite a bit, because I'm not a huge fan of putting so much investment into full auto as an ability, and especially if I can't get cell charger. I

I can't help but think using the 2 points you put into charged barrier would be better spent in heavy trooper. 2% extra endurance, and 6% bigger self heals 100% of the time, seems more valuable for survivability, than a few percent of damage mitigation. Particularly since if you're a pvp healer, you're only going to be mixing in dps, and should probably be healing most of the time, thus will only occasionally get the buff, and rarely for more than a few seconds. I also think the two points you spent in kolto residue would be better spent in treated wound dressings, efficient conversions, or combat shield. 5% additional healing for 15 seconds is fairly useless in PVP, especially since again, it's a conditional bonus, ie: you have to use a kolto bomb, and it doesn't help your own survivability at all. Treated Wound Dressings is just straight up 4% damage mitigation. Twice what you were getting out of charged barrier when i proc'd, for the same amount of skill points. I'm of course assuming, as a healer, you're going to have combat support cell up.

I'm not sure what to tell you... I have played various healing classes for years now, and monitoring each person's health bar and using individual heals is fairly par for the course. Group heals are generally inefficient and really only useful in specific situations, for specific encounters. I haven't made it that far along in this game yet, but my real hope for kolto bomb was that it would be a nice group heal to mix in in a warzone when you have a group of people around a contested point. I have it, but haven't really used it in any 4 man groups I've healed so far, and didn't really feel it was necessary.