when i was still madness, I used it until I picked up at least the 2 medals for 2K in a life and 5K total protection. Otherwise no.

i like how you had 1 solo kill out of 20 killing blows. Looks to me like you had some healer help.

shielding is far from useless in PvP. It has a diminished effect, but it still blocks some significant damage. compare this to the few hundred force power that you get otherwise, and I feel like the balance swings largely in the direction of using a shield. As far Dec ***, maybe I haven't seen one played well, that is possible. Their burst is decent, but they lack closers, they lack range, they don't synergize well with dark charge which makes them far more papery, and they require uninterrupted access to a target which is severely hindered in group combat. It isn't that you can't play a Dec Assassin well, its that playing one well requires the other guy not realizing you are a Dec Assassin. edit: More on shielding - I think the community overestimates the amount of yellow damage done versus white damage. I haven't played all, or even a majority of the total possible trees, but having examined abilities, and class trees, etc... I can't see total damage being more than 50/50 white to yellow. That means shielding is worth 50% less, but it doesn't mean its useless.

because i see people all the time using lightning charge and surging charge in pvp, and neither are nearly as effective

Darkness is a solid balance of damage and survivability. I wouldn't say it was OP at all, although Wither as it stands is really strong in group PvP due to the lack of snares in this game.

Before you do anything else, I strongly recommend switching to Dark Charge for all PvP purposes. It really hurts the Deception Assassin more than the other branches, but that is a story for another day as the Dec. *** is currently pretty weak outside of 1v1 imo. Lightning discharge is largely useless in PvP as fights aren't predictably 18s long. Surging charge is good, but it doesn't pack enough wallop to make up the difference. Dark Discharge largely sucks, but that isn't what you want it for. Dark Charge provides: 1) 3 very easy medals via Guard for every WZ, 2) A solid increase in armor, 3) GREAT self healing, 4) Making sure that you have a focus item that can shield, you negate a significant amount of damage via shielding weapon damage based attacks. I have lots of WZ where I self heal in excess of 10000 damage. That is basically another life back. Combine that with the 15% bonus to shielding and you have a solid damage reduction. It costs you: 1) 5% melee bonus which isn't a huge deal, 2) Losing discharges that are mediocre to okay. Give it a try as your current spec, whether you are a tankasin or not. The dps loss is negligible compared to the survivability gain.

ridiculous over the top post. Guard ameliorates a small portion of damage and redistributes the rest. In a game like Rift where there is a ton of AE healing going on constantly, that would make a difference. In this game it just results in dead tanks.

this is 2012. That was 2004. It should be years ahead. a minimum of 8.

you guys don't seem to have a real great grip on World PvP @ Bioware. I would happily consult for your company for a free sub and the cost of my game back. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=190195 That is my credentials. I successfully predicted this before it happened. About 1000000 or so others did too (what is the playerbase now? just insert that number) but I made a thread with like 30 responses so I think I get moved to the top of the line. I would definitely look at retaining some new game designers though because this tells me you guys aren't just behind Blizzard, but you just flat out do not know what you are doing at some level. This was just a really poor decision.

this is just a shameless self bump hoping that someone reads these ideas. Also at this point its pretty obvious: 1) Shut down Ilum until ~1.2 2) Repeal the 50 WZs until ~1.2 3) Start making changes to balance factions or Just give up a huge section of your player base. The PvP in this game is GREAT imo. But it can't survive if you can't get a game.

So I posted this thread before the hilarious threads today came out showing just show incredibly poor of an idea the Ilum execution was. This wasn't to show that I have some sort of brilliant foresight, but rather to show that I have played an MMO before. I can't see how they released Ilum as it is, IF the people at Bioware had actually played any sort of MMO with world PvP. Or they failed 101. Bioware: Seriously consider taking down Ilum for a while. Restart it after implementing some ideas from the community on balancing. Wait til you have a real level 50 playerbase. Right now, there are numerous posts on how The Republic is getting hammered completely while the Sith exploit their way ot Battlemaster. From a lore perspective, I love it, but from a gamers perspective, you are killing your PvP scene by the hour.

Dexvx provides a pretty good point actually How do you get people to move? How do you get people to stay? You have to do both things: You have incentivize players to leave their faction (with xp gains, bonuses to getting back to 50 quickly, increased rewards once you get there) and incentivize players to stay (rewards for winning, etc...) Players need a reason to leave their faction and their character and leveling time is an issue for a substantial portion of the player base - so make it easier to level Players need a reason to show up to Ilum - so provide exclusive rewards Players need a reason to be enticed to Ilum as the underpopulated faction and continue to fight there - I think adding increased rewards at 50 to the underpopulated factions is a good idea The point here is that you can't band-aid a fix on 6 months from now. There won't be anything left to fix. Real issues exist already, and unless BW makes an effort to fix them, they will be bragging about how great their World PvP is in their F2P Star Wars MMO a year from now.

I enjoy PvP. I enjoy world PvP. I play Sith currently. I know, having done World PvP in many games, that playing as the faction with a huge population advantage is 1) great because you almost always win 2) boring and terrible because you watch your 20 buddies tear into 2 poor roaming souls. There has to be a ±10% different in populations for these things to be fun. 9 guys can take on 10. 25 guys can take on 28. Even 50 guys can take on 55 or 60. 4 guys can't take on 14 though. The way I see it, there are two solutions, and you need both for this to work. 1) Ilum has to reward players with better than average rewards. No one is going to come out if there arent purples somewhere down the line. Make sure and reward players effectively for World PvP. Worldwide buffs 8 hour buffs, purple loot, pets, speeders etc... Make it worth everyone's while. 2) There REALLY needs to be a system to encourage faction balance!!! This should take place in two forms: a) use the instance based system to control populations per instance of Ilum. i.e. max 40 on 40. b) This critical incentivize playing the underpopulated faction. What if a server is 6:1 Empire to Republic? Its going to be no fun for either group. Now what if the underpopulated group got a scaling exp bonus to the underpopulated side. Bioware benefits because you get people reinterested in a new character which means re-ups. Players benefit because they see the other story, and they balance the ranks. Wouldn't you be more inclined to reroll a Republic character if you knew you were getting a 25 or even 40% exp bonus to do it? You get to see the whole class quest, hit level 50 and you only spend 40 hours doing it! And it benefits everyone!! TLDR: Ilum won't be fun or successful until populations are reasonable. Incentivize both showing up to Ilum, and playing underpopulated classes. Reward players with multiple kinds of loot, buffs and fun.

this is just outright crying. 1) Stealth midfight has been in at least 2 mmorpgs I can think of offhand that have been relatively successful (WoW and Rift) and probably more. It isn't a new concept. 2) Force lightning can be interrupted easily as its channeled. Additionally it is mediocre dps and puts a big shiny target on you that says "I have light armor and I am casting spells."