Tons of stuff. - Before going in a fight, put it in a safe spot so you have a way out if things go wrong. - Similarly it can get you out of the melee to give a healer time to catch up. - You can actually use it while cc'd which means that you can escape stunlocks by phasewalking away and deny the opponent the burst they were probably about to unleash on you. - You can put in on a ramp in many arenas/hutball before attacking someone to get back up (you attack merc, merc tosses you off, you pw back up). Or just putting it there so you have the option of quickly going up if some annoying ranged shows up. - When deffing putting it next to your node is a nobrainer. To elaborate further, defend far off your node. This way when you get sapped your enemy has to cover the distance before starting the cap. You can just pw next to him while sapped then hit him when sap wears off =) - When KC you obviously put it so a healer can stay near it and get the heal bonus. - The other way around ^^ I've actually put it between enemies before going after a sorc that kept cycloning me every time. The dude cyclones me, I pw in the melee and it gets broken straight away (a very situational use I'll admit). - You could put it near the enemy's line at hutball. That way you can easily position for a pass. - etc... It's quite useable but you need to consider what it can do for you before going in. It's a proactive ability but as I said, it can make a big diffirence if used well.

Infiltration shadows, combat sents Also yellow posts have already stated they want to move the game in a direction where ALL specs have both single target and aoe capacities. So no, they won't evolve focus back to it's previous "want aoe? spec here..." status. As long as your hardest hitter breaks all soft cc around you with negligible damage the spec will never be viable for ranked teams. I realize this probably ain't the best solution but it would be a quick patch to at least make the spec playable in rankeds again.

Would solve some issues with the spec if you ask me. 1. No longer mitigated by everybody and their grandmother's 30% aoe reduction. This would bring focus spec to a decent single target burst level on most targets imo. Still quite a bit lower then combat, but more reliable. 2. Decent teams can no longer use your negligible aoe damage to stay safe from mezzes. This really kills the spec atm. Atm sweep feels like a big single target attack with the added disadvantage of breaking every soft cc around you :/ To me personally it seems like this is really all that's needed to get focus pvp viable again. It's still the hardest spec to kite, reliable (less prone to being shut down by proper people who just KB you but don't whitebar with stuns), and with a bit more single target burst and no longer being a cc breaker all around, at least seems like a good place to start no?

Any game where gear or your choice of trade!!!! skill has an impact on pvp is hardly skill based. You have to invest time to get the stuff you need to be "good". Some players might be a hundred times better then these "pro" teams but they'll never get to prove it cause they can't invest the time in grinding all the gear. And no gear = no wins cause the matchmaking system is none existent. Ow, and anyone believing that using voice comms to keep cc on a target is "skill" is sort of ignorant. Unless you're a mute, it's really not that hard :/ tl;dr: want a skill based game? Go look elsewhere...

Pure awesomeness very good job ^^

Also, unless you have 3 stacks of force potency from gear, use breach before project when you pop potency. If you use project first you risk losing a potency charge for upheavel. It's not a big difference but small bits add up

Most obvious way to get that point is taking it from mental fortitude, although I personally take mine from shadowsight to make the 23/1/17 spec (been playing it for ages, it really rocks ) Dropping containment is not a good idea imo. I would learn to use it instead It's pretty awesome. Out of stealth spinning kick, force pull, force wave, force stun, instant force lift with stun component... This spec has insane cc with decent damage and good survivability. If force lift is too much hassle you might be more suited with a 27/0/14 spec or even a 31/0/10 spec Expertise is pretty fail. It adds 9% to a proc that deals 250-ish damage every 4.5 seconds at best. The 30% force regen on the other hand is pretty awesome. I would probably be force starved half the time if I didn't have that.

Are all your other points invested in the same tree?? The trees are built up in tiers. You need 5 points for each lower tier to unlock a talent. F.e. to get retractable blade (3rd tier in AP tree) you need 10 points spent in the first 2 tiers of the AP tree So if you've put points into the other trees you will have to wait for more points to pick up RB. Or you can respec.

Moot discussion tbh. The pures are already in the top spectrum of the damage field while, on average, having better (i.e. less situational) utility. Given equal skill levels, only a fool would bench a sentinel to take a dps shadow/vanguard. It's also pretty obvious that gunslingers are better then dps commandos/sages nowadays... Tank hybrids in dps spec/gear/stance can not tank. A balance shadow with enough nerve to taunt a boss is VERY unlikely to survive the duration of the taunt. Even with def CD's up it's a cointoss at best. If healer hybrids in dps gear/spec start healing the dps loss far outweighs the healing gain and you're probably in a very bad spot anyway. As far as the noted situations go, it's just that. Situational. Yes on some encounters cleanse and taunts might be useful, but these are circumstantial, while the utility provided by the pures is useful around the clock. If anything, hybrid tax is in the game, and it's showing. As I said, only a fool would bench his pure for a hybrid in the current state of the game. note: Yes I do exaggerate. The diffirence is smaller then I make it seem, but it's still there, and renders the discussion moot, which is my point...

First check buff bar to see which Cylinder is active. Combustable Gas Cylinder is the pyro cylinder and means the PT will use a pyro orientated rotation. High Energy Gas Cylinder is the Advanced Prototype Cylinder and means the PT will use an AP orientated rotation. Ion Gas Cylinder is the tank cylinder. From the cylinder you can figure out the spec of the PT and how he will most likely play. Pyrotech (CGC): High dps/burst, relatively low mobility/utility AP (HeGC): Lower burst, slightly lower dps, more mobility/utility Shield Tech (IGC): tank spec, I don't come across them too often so can't help you with this. They're not too hard on my shadow :/ There are some hybrid builds to consider: Iron Fist is tanky with lots of utility and still decent dps. Cant' help you with these. Run-And-Gun combines AP with Pyrotech to make a more utility/mobile spec that still has good damage. These use CGC, have lower burst, but more kiting options, quicker grapple, etc... On to abilities/rotations: Pyros main abilities are: Incendiary Missile: ability with relatively low up front damage, but a pretty powerful dot component. Elemental damage. 30m range. Flame Burst: Pretty good damage, if talented has 100% chance to apply the combustable gas dot and 45% chance to reset the cooldown on railshot. 10m range. Rocket Punch: High damage melee ability. If talented has a 60% chance to reset the railshot CD. I think it's kinetic damage. Railshot: High damage ability. 30m range. If talented ignores 90% armor. Needs you debuffed in order to use. CD can be reset by rocket punch or flame burst with a 6 second internal cooldown. Combustable Gas Dot: this is the dot that goes along with the CGC. It WILL be applied to you either through rapid shots (the base, no-cost attack), or through Flame Burst. Thermal Detonator: 30m range. Sticks on you (beeps) and goes off after a while (couple of seconds, might be 2 gcd's, not too sure). It's aoe damage and hits pretty hard, crits even harder (some talent improves crit damage for this, railshot and both dots) The bread and butter of this spec is railshot. That's where the main burst comes from. Typical rotation when everything is off CD for the PT will be incendiary missile and maybe TD (not necessarily in this order), railshot, FB/RP to proc the railshot CD reset and apply CGC, another railshot, etc... Most notable defensive ability is a shield that mitigates 25% of all incoming damage. CC: 2.5s aoe stun (carbon thingy), 4s single target stun (electro dart). All skills are instant cast. How you use this information is pretty much up to you. Every fight is different in pvp and there is no set "I win button". On my shadow the clue VS Pyrotechs is to time resilience to remove the dots/resist TD and screw up the rotation. This buys me enough time to burn them down. I vanish if they shield. I play balance and can't afford to DPS through the shield and rely on self healing/mitigation to keep me up like kinetics can. On to AP: Abilities: Flame Burst yet again: hits harder in this spec. If talented can proc to make the next rocket punch resource-free. Immolate: 10m high damage elemental thingy. If talented will proc to make the next rocket punch resource-free. Retractable Blade: Melee ability with moderate damage and pretty high damage bleed component. Rocket punch yet again: hits harder in this spec FlameThrower: Channeled aoe ability. it's a 10m cone, roughly 40 degrees wide. They are rooted while casting it but can turn around to reposition the cone. Railshot once again although there's a pretty popular spec (AP NORS) that does not use railshot (hence NORS ) Important Procs: Charged Gauntlets: damage caused by RB and RP has a chance to make next railshot autocrit. Prototype Flame Thrower: stacks up to 5 times. Each stack increases next flamethrower cast's damage with 10%. At 5 stacks the FT cast will also slow you 70% while in the area. This spec is mainly focused on getting the PFT stacks and toasting you with the flamethrower. Be aware of the autocrit RS proc, and the PFT stacks on the powertech. Clue on my shadow is to, yet again, time resilience to resist the FT, or use force speed to get out of it fast. This spec also gets a movement speed increase ability that removes movement impairment abilities. Flame burst crits pretty high in this spec. Typical rotation will put RB on you asap, immolate for free rocket punch, rocket punch, then flame burst spam to stack up the FT and then toast you with it. The hybrid spec that combines these 2 specs will forgo immolate and the flamethrower buffs to combine the autocrit railshot of AP tree with the cooldown reset proc for railshot in the pyro tree. I'm sure the PT's themselves can give you more info and correct me a bit, and give you some info on the tank specs EDIT: maybe some information about what, imo, everyone should do when they start pvp on their first 50. It's kind of off topic but might help you Head to all the class forums and check the stickies. Most (if not all) have a sticky with pvp info on the class. Read these, twice, and try to get an idea of how the class works. Next head to torhead and check the skill calculator for every AC. Most trees revolve around using abilities to buff other abilities. Check the ability descriptions for these abilities and learn the buff icons. This will give you a clue when big damage is incoming and when to use defensives or start kiting/juking. The game mainly revolves around cooldowns, and 3 main types of abilities. 1. Those that are important for resource management. 2. Builders: the ones that proc buffs/debuffs for the big hitters. 3. Big Hitters: the abilities that get buffed by the buffs/debuffs procced by the builders. Once you know how your enemies build up their rotations, it's much easier to screw them up, reducing their output, etc... Also learn which defensive options they have so you know how to react to them. It's a lot of info for one night, so focus on the classes that are hard for you first, and gradually "get educated" ) You should probably start with powertechs, darkness sins and mara's first

Considering the amounts of posts on this forum I think it's pretty obvious you screwed up in 1.2. BIG TIME!!! I'm not here to repeat all the concerns that have been voiced. I'm here to voice my own and that is a major lack of communication. You unleash a patch that didn't really make anything better. A load of comments are posted about it and you can't tell us how you're handling this? TALK TO US!! Recognize the problem, tell us how you're gonna handle it and in what time span (I suggest a short one). There ARE games to be released soon that look promising, and unless you can at least dangle more carrots in front of our noses you'll lose (even though it might already be too late).

What do hybrids have to do with it? Killing a full tank with a healer is even harder before respawns and according to your topic upsets wz balance even more. So we should remove tanks from pvp because 1 healer + tank can hold a point until backup arrives, is that it?

lawl rubbish. Sorry for shadow terminology incoming. Using CC breaker to intterupt harnessed shadowed TK Throw is incredibly stupid. What happens next is I pop resil to clear dots, vanish, sap, and heal up with meditate to 100% while you stand around doing nothing in particular but being frustrated. By the time you come out I'm at full health, have deflection ready, and 100% force while you're at 0 focus... Obviously this is in a pure 1v1 situation. In group play things are always different.

cent and champ gear don't get touched in 1.2 Rakata and BM are so you'd best keep/restore these items in/to their original state. go ahead and remod your champ gear if you want. It doesn't get updated anyway (in fact, it gets replaced for new players in 1.2 with other items. You keep your champ stuff, but it will no longer be available from the vendors).

Next time you feel all is lost, please just leave the wz. I see multiple comebacks every week because people like you leave and someone proper comes instead. You're playing a Star Wars game ffs. "Never tell me the odds..."

You do realize a good darkness sin will beat you every time?

Root on melee is as bad as a stun half the time. It should add some resolve at least. Diminishing returns: half a resolve bar reduces the duration of cc. Full resolve bar makes you immune. As it is, I'm forced to play kinetic shadow because infiltration is so squishy I'm usually dead before resolve kicks in... Then again the cc in this game is ok. Just annoying if you're easily killed and roots lock you down pretty much as hard as stuns do.

True enough. Still, I often find myself in smaller scale fights (alderaan in particular, voidstar when people try ninja setups) where it's obvious which way the burst is going. I'm sorry if my comment came accross as harsh, I didn't mean to take an offensive stance. It's just that playing on a sith the instant nature of shock does feel like a relief rather then an irritation. Once again a fair point but I still have some remarks. Burst out of low slash only works if your team doesn't break it. Burst out of stun can only be done once every minute (if you are fully responsible for setting it up, teammates can stun obviously, but I tend to pug more then premade). There's also resolve. Project gives a visible queue, and people can react with millisecond precision to it IF they are aware of your presence and aren't disabled. I like that project doesn't break low slash till just before breach hits. But as I stated before, when playing sith, I rarely miss the delay, and shock's responsiveness does feel like a relief. Maybe I AM bad, I have no pretention about being pro or whatever

everyone with half a brain does know when an infiltrator's burst is coming and has ample time to react due to project delay. It's less problematic for combat shadows even though it still gives people the opportunity to better time their defensive CD's. Only scrubs will take full damage to the face if they have defensive CD's up :/ It is NOT something positive at all. This doesn't even mention the loads of other negative consequences. There's enough threads on this board already explaining why project delay makes it inferior to shock.

shadows get a buff called resilience. 3s duration on a 60s CD. Talented 5s duration on a 45s CD (combat spec). It blocks all tech- and force powers including your CC obviously.

This game has some real potential if you ask me. If they'd add 1 or 2 more warzones with interesting tactical options, the option to choose which WZ's you queue up for, and introduce ranked warzones (face it, this will never be an esport, but some competition never hurts) it'd be a lot better. Class balance is nearly the best I've seen in any new MMORPG. SO many games failed SO much harder here. DoaC had the mez thing, and whatnot. Rift had the typical FotM attitude where you had to be saboteur first, then warrior, etc... , to do well, warhammer had the bright wizard, and don't even get me started on vanilla wow balance (it felt ok-ish in tbc, I quit just before wotlk so I wouldn't know how it's now). Sorc hybrids get maybe slightly too much roots/stuns for a melee player to be comfortable with, and at 50 scoundrels/ops do need a little help, but apart from that it's quite fine. Ilum will never work until factions balance out. It seems to me like there's more imp qq then republic (there's more of them so it's quite normal) so it will actually even out some when the qq'ers leave to 4 button zergs in GW2 They will need to add some more tactical options and interesting possibilities to it, but it's not even worth putting any developer's time in as long as factions are this unbalanced if you ask me. Mass pvp never appealed to me. It turns into mindless zergs and I prefer to play with smaller premades where tactics and teamplay win games. I like the fact that I need to have a huge ammount of key bindings in this game. The ammount of procs I need to keep track of. My resolve bar, and ofcourse my enemy's to keep in mind, etc... This game really has potential to be at least a very enjoyable pvp experience. True, it'll never be a full RvR game built around pvp, but it could still have great pvp experience without too many adjustments. On top of that, leveling a toon doesn't feel like a chore for once, which is also very refreshing. Sure, GW2 could be better and I might give it a try, but looking back at the last few years I need to see it before I believe it. Warhammer was gonne be the summit of pvp games. AoC was gonna do everything diffirent and better. Rift was gonna be endlessly dynamic and immersing and insanely good. And Aion was gonna change how we see mmorpg's. As it turns out, warhammer was hugely imbalanced (bright wizards anyone?) and crashed the server in big battles, AoC had next to no endgame content AND was hugely imbalanced. Rift was dull. The dynamic content was just the same over and over, and the pvp was hugely imbalanced. Aion was the worst of all the games I just mentioned if you ask me. Excuse me if I'm sceptic about GW2 till I've actually played it...