I did watch it. I watched as they bombed a door you were guarding, and you did nothing to prevent it. I continued to watch as you opted not to try to prevent further caps as the bridge extented. Suffice to say, you didn't care about the objectives. And that's fine. But how can you show that assassins are a good class if you don't show our CC and mobility too?

Wait a minute. You do realize that we're hybrid tanks, right? Not rogues. Yes, you're darn right we run the ball. We make pretty darn good ball carriers, too. Switch to Dark Surge (yes, even if deception specced), use knockback and force speed to your advantage. Or run alongside the ball carrier guarding him and clearing the way. Either is fine.

Yeah, but, mate - you lost both matches. If you don't focus on the objectives, of course you can do more damage than anyone else. Sorry, meant team mate, not guildie. But he obviously went for the ball, since he had some objective points in that game. And in the Voidstar video, he disconnected quite early in the game. I did notice that. But planting is everyone's responsibility - you can't just shrug and say that since noone else planted, it was hopeless. At the very least, you should be on CC duty, in my opinion. Regardless, I didn't mean to come off as quite such a jerk. The point was the both Huttball and Voidstar are matches often focused on completing objectives. A video of skirmishing far from the objectives will get slanted, since not everyone cares as much about skirmishing on those maps. In fact, only a few of the people you kill actually try to fight back - most seem to be trying to get back to the objectives. A civil war video would be more interesting since it's more of a grind fest. I've played an assassin to 50 before rerolling as Republic (and then again to 45 to enjoy the 1-49 bracket). I know the class reasonably well. I actually think you're doing well - you manage your force and do good damage. Your rotation probably could use some work, but that's hard to tell without knowing your spec, and beside the point. However the general consensus, which I happen to agree with, is that assassin is actually one of the few balanced classes. We know about it, we just don't consider it over powered.

1-49 bracket, I expect him to at least try a ninja cap once. That's kinda my point. He is a stealth class, but never tried defending. In fact, the first thing he did was run to the opposite side, and attack the people in the back. And when the first door gets bombed, it's on his side. At one point, you can actually see the Repub planting, but he's not doing anything to interrupt.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say with this video. You got steam rolled by the Reps, in an almost embarrassing 3 minutes and 20 seconds. I wouldn't have minded - you play like you want - except that you ripped on your guildie for not achieving as high damage (presumably in the previous match) when he was trying to cap the objectives instead. You're a stealth class, but didn't even once try to stealth cap the doors. Sure, you got kills, but guess what - those Repubs probably didn't care - their aim was not to kill you, but to prevent a cap. And they succeeded. Assuming their objective is what mine is when defending - CCing, placing DoTs and AoEs - they weren't actively trying to fight back at you, just prevent you from capping. When defending, you were constantly lured away from the doors to pick at the weak sheep at the back. Just what they wanted. Likewise when they blew the doors - rather than rush ahead and prevent further caps, you hung back and picked on the stragglers. Didn't do your team much good now, did it? For all your medals, the other team got more valor and commendations. In summation: - Being a medal hog is fine if that's what you want to be, but don't rip on your team mates for being team players. - Post a video of Civil War instead, where at least the opponents are trying to pick a fight on equal terms.

I think the problem most of us ops (or in my case scoundrels) are facing is the fact that there seems to be a huge damage disparity between BM-geared ops and the rest of us with mediocre gear. While the former might indeed be imbalanced, I honestly don't see the damage output other people claim they suffer from ops. In fact, it's on par with what my equally geared assassin or commando do, and they're not even burst classes. And this is regardless of skill. The damage during our opener isn't really subject to skill. So what are we supposed to do in this instance, when others claim we're OP? We can't protest the nerf without being called cry babies and not taken seriously, even though we can make a reasonably objective comparion with our own alts. You people who claim ops are OP, have you tried the class for yourself? There is an of abundance of anecdotal evidence and second-hand sources such as youtube videos regarding ops damage, but the first hand sources are invariably scoffed at.

I agree. There are other ways to go about this - personally, I liked suggestion of the removal of the knockdown talent and replacing it with something else since people's major beef seems to be with the knockdown and not the burst damage itself. Granted, I only have ~300 expertise, but I've _never_ been able to do anything like the damage people claim Operatives and Scoundrels do. In fact, I have still to see any hint of 5k damage medal without using clickies. Once the patch goes live, I'll be rerolling JK since apparently massive AoE burst is fine as long as there's no knockdown attached.

Sorry if this is obvious, but I don't really remember the quest - you don't happen to carry scramblers in your mission item inventory, do you? If so, right-click on them while close to the objective.

Looks good to me. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I wouldn't use that rotation for this build. I would save Maul for when Exploit Weakness procs despite the initial high out-of-stealth regen. And just because Spike is our only stealth opener (and as you know, it's not even that with a Darkness heavy build) doesn't mean we actually have to open with it. I personally only use it as an interupt or a smaller stun before Electrocute. When I'm running Darkness heavy, I use a similar spec (23/18/0) and a very boring rotation of Thrash until I build Induction stacks and Energize, and then Shock. Maul when Exploit Weakness is up, but generally just go between Shock and Thrash. For that reason, I really recommend grabbing Electrify instead of Sith Defiance. I prefer the utility of Fade and Static Cling over Exploitive Strikes, but I can see how the latter would work really well - but it's yet another reason to trigger an Energized Shock as early and often in the rotation as possible.

Your OP buddy is doing something very strange if he blows his entire energy pool during the initial burst. You go in with Acid Blade already running and energy pool full. Hidden Strike costs 15 energy. Backstab is free. Lacerate is 15. That's the opening salvo. During those 3 GCDs, you regen at least 20 energy, so you're almost back to full by the time your opponent gets back up on his feet, leaving plenty of room for the other abilities.

There are plenty of weird things in this build, but the strangest is your idea of splashing Dirty Fighting for extra energy regen. You spent 13 points building up to Street Tough, which gives 10 energy every 15 seconds (0,67 energy/second). Spend those points in Scrapper instead, and grab Underdog for 1,5 energy/second (and less UHs spent).

Fairly standard build, but you have a lot of split points - perhaps you should reconsider what you want to focus on. You might want to trade Keep Cool for Anatomy Lessons, depending on play style. Personally, I like the endurance and damage reduction, but I PvP a lot. For PvE you should focus on max sustained damage. Shifty Eyed is an odd choice for that.

It is possible, but in my experience Commando is the only class that can effectively do this. Because of various reasons, Scoundrels have a much harder time going hybrid without limiting their potential. Certainly feasible for levelling, but never as effective in groups. But the 23/0/18 build posted actually looks kinda viable, so if you're intent on running a Scoundrel hybrid I'd go with that (although I'd personally move some stuff around: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#701rff0dh0kzZZhrbkr0h.1 ) But my advise would be to look at the Commando for an effective hybrid.

Exploratory Surgery is a must. Not so much for the faster cast times, but for the free Upper Hand - you need it to reliably use certain skills. Pop UWM and start Pugnancy before entering any action. And I'd rather have Keep Cool than the points in Diagnostic Scan. It's only 16 more energy every 2 minutes, but when you need it, you need it. The crit energy regen on Diagnostic Scan is negligable in my experience - but more experienced healers might disagree. Either way, it's channeled, so you'll never use it in PvP. Additionally, I consider Surprise Comeback somewhat crucial as well. Yes, the regen is slow (30% over 45 seconds), but it's always up. I'd probably get that and Sawed Off (free Black Blasts) over Flying Fists.

Sorry for not answering before now. I haven't been playing my assassin lately - I got tired of steamrolling the Reps on my server and joined the underdogs instead. Having said that, I'd like to adress the following: As I said in my first post, I understand that not everyone cares about winning warzones - and if your aim is to maximize commendations, winning quickly can actually in extreme cases be counter-productive. However, even before the patch - but especially after it - winning will usually yield more commendations. If you just want to kill people, that's fine too. But then this guide is not for you. Agreed. This is probably server specific, but my impression is that there is a larger number of Republics on my server, but Imperials are more common among hardcore PvPers. This leads to a larger percentage of 50s among the Imperials, and a larger number of mid-level casual PvP players among the Republics. This might even out to some extent. They do on my server, and incidentally, there are more healers among the Imperials than the Republics. Quite surprising, but then again, there's a lot of sorcs among the Imperials. Point. Most players stand in front of the objective, just as you say. When defending, I always hide to the rear and side so that I have both the enemy spawn and the objective in my field of view, and don't have to pan. Regarding Mind Trap, I suppose that would depend on who's defending. Against a static player, I wouldn't use it either, but against someone who occasionally turns I like to goad them into burning their CC breaker by using Mind Trap and start capping clearly visible to them - and then, when they break the stun, use Force Cloak and wait for their resolve bar to reset. But then again, I have Low Slash specced and I use for it extra force regen. Without it, I'd rather save Force Cloak. Really? It's not like there's a shortage of keybinds. I have mapped basically every key left of and including 5-t-g-v - but I haven't even really begun to map Shift modifiers. I personally use a hybrid build without Voltaic Slash, but even with VS replacing Thrash (which of course it's meant to), I don't see how it how alter gameplay so drastically. Agreed, but I expect this to change. The increased rewards for winning in the latest patch is probably only the beginning.

I mentioned in the third paragraph that it was indeed more aimed towards Darkness and Deception builds. One problem with Death Field - if one or more of the attackers has a bubble, you're screwed if you're not in Overload range. Also, you won't get any defender medals if you're that far from the ojective, so it's a double loss. Quite frankly, this is the kind of attitude that in my opinion is ruining Warzones. Video after video of people in Huttball showing their skills killing people - but only ever rarely the ball carrier. We need to stop thinking in terms of placing high on the score board. For what? Anyone can do 250k damage in skirmish, but incidentally the enemy sages will have 250k healing as well. We deal damage, they heal through it, 5 people on each side in a stalemate - but we're not helping the team, and the entire match takes place somewhere else, with the remaining 3 people actually focusing on the objectives. This is not aimed against you personally - I don't know you, or how you play - but the the only category in which we should be interested in placing top is objectives. Alternatively, if you don't give a crap about the team (hey, we're Sith - some of us rolled it for a reason) you should at least try to maximize your medals. Damage will give you just 1 medal. Well, actually, there's another very good reason to say "screw the team" and play the way you want - you play the way you think is fun, for your own enjoyment. It's just a shame for the rest of us that you take a spot on the team which could've been filled by a team player.

Guard refers to the Guard ability, a buff that you place on fellow players that lowers the damage received by 5% and transfers 50% of the remaining damage to you. All damage transferred back to you this way counts as Protection (which you'll notice in the score board at the end). You earn medals for racking up protection (i.e. guarding them), at the levels of 1k, 5k and 10k damage respectively. I don't recall the specific medal names except Paladin, 10k protection in a single life.

Having gathered what I consider to be a large amount of PvP experience, both in beta and release, I thought I'd share the lessons I learned with my fellow assassins. Some of this advice may be obvious, some might not be. Use what you can, and feel free to comment if you disagree. I won't make any claim to be a superior PvP player, to always place first or to have the best KB/D ratio. I will say, however, that I win probably more than 95% of the matches I participate in. Whether I'm lucky or skillful, I leave to others to decide. I'm not too familiar with Madness builds. My advice about specific abilities are generally aimed towards Darkness and Deception builds. I assume general familiarity with the warzones, so I won't go into specifics about the objectives and mechanics of each. General advice: Warzone commendations cap at 1000. Make sure you continually use your commendations in order not to waste them. Buy and save higher level gear, and invest in packs or healing. You'll sometimes hear people claim that level isn't important in PvP. That may be true for other classes, but assassins don't really come into their own in PvP until the 30s. At level 30 you get Mass Mind Control, and at 32 Assassinate (which, while not playstyle-altering, is immensely useful in every rotation). Depending on specialization, you'll probably get your first special CC abilities at 31 (Force Pull or Low Slash). Don't be surprised if you feel underwhelmed by the class's performance in PvP before level 30. On that note: learn all aspects of your class. Remember that you can tank when needed, even if not specialized for it. Mass Mind Control and Guard are extremely useful abilities. Switch to Dark Surge and use Guard when protecting a ball carrier or healer, and you'll easily earn 2-3 medals. However, and I can't stress this enough, remember to remove the Guard when you're not close to the person you're guarding. Nothing is more annoying than trying to guard someone, only to find out they're already Guarded by a person on the other side of the field (and thus out of effective Guard range). Assassin is one of the most front-loaded classes in the game - we're built for initial burst, but can't really do well with sustained DPS. If a fight drags on - especially versus back-loaded classes like Jedi Knights, consider pulling out and recuperate. Stun+Force Speed or Force Cloak lets us end an engagement on our terms. Force Cloak also increases force regen, and can be used offensively, to regain enough force to finish the enemy off with 2 Mauls from a full bar. When fleeing by Force Cloak first use Force Shroud to avoid DoTs which will break stealth. Remember that any AoE ability will break stealth, so try to get some distance from the enemy before activating the cloak. Keep note of the resolve bar on enemy players. That's the greyish bar underneath the health bar, also visible around their portrait. Resolve is a measure of their resistance to CC. If it's full or very high, hold back your CC abilities for when you really need them. This is also crucial if you hope to CC someone in a fire obstacle in Huttball. Winning a game quickly will actually often yield less commendations and valor due to earning fewer medals, than losing a long game. You'll have to decide for yourself if you want to help the entire team win, or maximize your own profits. I always go for the team win, but there's usually a price to pay either way. Fair warning: team efforts are rarely appreciated. You'll notice that the score board is sorted by number of medals, and medals are generally a decent indication of at least some team work abilities (tanking or healing). You'll probably notice that healers get most MVP votes. That's fine, healers deserve something for their work. However, healing is an effort that doesn't necessarily help the team the most. With objective points being calculated in such a strange manner, don't expect people to always appreciate your efforts. I've run Voidstar scenarios where I single-handedly blew all doors on offense, and did my share preventing the opposite on defence, and yet didn't even get a single vote. I couldn't care less about MVP votes, but if you do be prepared for some disappointment. Huttball: The first rule of Huttball is: you want to be where the ball is regardless of who has it - not skirmishing like most people seem to do. Alternatively, you want to take up a defensive or offensive position, but - and I can't stress this enough - don't get caught up in fights far away from the ball. Assassin is an extremely fun class to play in Huttball, due to our very high amount of CC, and ability to both tank and DPS, regardless of specialization. The fluid playfield and many obstacles is a perfect place for hit-and-run tactics. As an assassin, you make a fine ball carrier (or guardian of the ball carrier), and an even better interceptor. A good team will always run in packs, have focus healing on the carrier, and will be prepared to pass if the focus fire gets too much. Do not simply rush in and start smacking on the carrier if he's part of a larger group and you're not. At best, you'll kill the carrier before being focus fired and killed yourself, and your team won't be better off. Instead, stealth and wait for your opportunity to ether use Overload or wait for other team members to arrive before striking. If you have Force Pull, use it against the ball carriers to isolate them, drag them into obstacles or down from the catwalks. When carrying the ball, save your only CC breaker (Unbreakable Will) for the occasions when you get stunned in fire obstacles. As the game matures and the community learns the warzones, you'll notice how important tactics are here. Your worst enemy is a premade 4-man team, who knows how to work together and pass, grab and Force Jump. A common tactic of such groups is to place one member in the scoring zone, and simply pass the ball either from below or from on the catwalks - through the blockers and obstacles. Another very lethal tactic is to simply Force Jump from below to an enemy player up on the ledge close to the scoring zone. As an assassin, its your job is prevent both, simply because you are the only class who has the ability to both stealth and CC. When an enemy player enters the scoring zone ledge, knock him or her off. Alternative, wait until the pass before doing so, and you can grab the ball instead. If the ledge is empty, stay in stealth to prevent someone Force Jumping to you. Remember that Overload is quite fickle. The enemy is supposed to be knocked back from the place where you activated the ability, not where you are when it lands, and even then the knockback direction sometimes seems like it's rolled on a scatter chart. It's all too common to accidentally knock the ball carrier closer to the scoring zone. Use it to knock people off the catwalks, but use restraint when close to the scoring zone. (And again, make a note of the carrier's resolve bar before using it.) Sometimes you'll see stragglers with low health in your end of the playing field. It's hard to resist the urge to finish them off. But before doing so, make a note of where the ball is at the moment, and who has it. If your team is charging, and already in the enemy half of the playing field, you might actually hurt your team by killing him. Ask yourself - is your team better off with an enemy on low health far behind the ball carrier, or with a recently respawned enemy in full health standing in the ball carrier's way? Sometimes you'll find yourself alone while carrying the ball, badly outnumbered, your own team skirmishing in the center. Consider using Force Cloak (or an intentionally bad pass) to save yourself - and make sure that the ball resets to where your team is, rather than effectively handing it over to the enemy when they kill you. (If you didn't already know it - the ball resets if the ball carrier enters stealth. Also, you can't catch a pass if you're in stealth) When carrying the ball, it often wise to avoid using the vents in the center. Go around and up the sides instead. The vents are useful when running away, but it's much too unreliable when carrying the ball - worst case, you'll actually land in the poison obstacles instead. Avoiding vents also has the added benefit of making sure you don't land in one direction, and your team mates in another. Fun fact: if the score is even, whichever side holds the ball when the time is up, wins. Make sure that's your side. Voidstar: When on defence, remember that your objective is to guard the doors/computers, not to slay the attackers 50 meters from the objectives. You'll notice that every so often, someone will yell "Fight at the doors!" You listen to them. Do not get lured away, unless focus fired but ranged DPS where you'd have little other choice. (Which is why you should generally stay in stealth until someone tries to cap.) I'll say it again: Defend. The. Objectives. You'll hear some people getting frustrated with the tendency of several people capping at once, instead of having a single person cap and the others guarding and/or CC'ing. The merits of several cappers is doubtful, but it's actually quite common and it works against assassins here as we lack AoE. In fact, it's still very common to use single-target abilities at one of the cappers, and losing the objective as a result. Lacerate, while more or less useless in PvP, should still be hotkeyed for easy access for this very reason. Before Lacerate at level 26, always stay in Dark Surge to make sure you have access to the AoE Discharge. Circling through targets in a group is slow, and you'll likely be CC'ed after hitting your first target, so make sure you have easy access to what little AoE you have. You can never rely on your team mates to effectively defend and cover both doors. With your mobility, circle between doors or take a position where you can see them both, and intercept any cappers. While this is everyone's job really, it's often sadly neglected. Remember that the enemy have stealth, too. Never leave a door unguarded, even if all the action takes place on the other side. Remember to talk to your team mates. If you see incoming enemies and your door is poorly defended, tell everyone so. On the offence - use stealth and speed to your advantage. While your team mates engage the enemy and lure them away, sneak up to the doors and cap them. This works surprisingly well - the tendency to forget about stealthers work both ways. You can sometimes hear the people say "Everyone go right." This time you don't listen to them. Go to the other door, and wait for an opportunity to cap. This is especially true for the second set of doors, after the extendable bridges. A favourite tactic of mine, which always works, is to run across the first bridge that extends (in stealth), then go to the door on the other side, and cap that one. With just a single bridge extended, everyone generally assumes that the enemy will cap the closest door and leave the other undefended. (The opposite is of course true when defending - never neglect that door - make sure you either guard it, or have it in your LoS.) By stealthing and rushing, it's possible to cap all the objectives here within a very short time frame while everyone else is skirmishing. As always, remember that if you want to win, the objectives come first. Alderaan: A note on objectives: there are those who claim capturing the center is key to victory. I disagree. Holding the flanks and constantly prodding the center to force the enemy to guard it in force is quite viable. The layout of the map benefits holding the center as you can easily get to the sides from there, but it's not as crucial as people make it out to be. Alderaan is perhaps the most straight-forward warzone, there's not much specific advise I can give here. The other two warzones can really depend on a single player, but this one's always a team effort. As a stealther, you have a single unique role when not capturing and defending with everyone else - probing and counter-probing. Whether on the defence (2+ objectives owned by your team) or offence objectives should always be guarded by at least 2 people. One of them could be you. Always stay in stealth, and you can usually lure a single or two-man group into a trap. Remember, however, that you're not completely invisible, and the tables can sometimes turn on you. While guarding is boring duty, do try to move around a bit to dectect enemy stealthers. A more useful role could be to probe the enemy's objective(s). If it's a single person visible, make sure Force Cloak and Force Speed is off CD, use Mind Trap, place the console between yourself and the enemy, and try a sneak cap staying out of their field of view. It sometimes works. If the enemy uses their CC breaker to end Mind Trap early, you're still in a better position for the ensuing fight having Electrocute (and if specced, Low Slash et al) left. However, more often than not you'll find that the single enemy is accompanied by a stealther of his/her own. Considering first using Blackout and run a lap around the platform just to check if you can spot anyone sneaking around. If the objective is guarded by too large a force, don't just run away to more fruitful endeavours. Talk to your team. "West defended by 3 reps" helps a bunch in deciding team strategy. If the center objective is in enemy hands, a common strategy is to place ranged DPS on the ledges from where they can safely attack anyone who tries to cap the console. Get up there, and kill them or chase them off. While they hold the ledges, they can heal and prevent capping all they like. Don't lemming. You're strong in 1v1, you can afford to stray off the main group. If everyone is going to center, stay and guard or go for one of the consoles on the side. End notes: That's pretty much it. Remember, whether specced for tank or DPS, all assassins can stealth and protect. Our mission in warzones is not necessarily to pick off the lone sages, but use our full range of abilities to aid our team. But, as I mentioned initially, aiding the team isn't the same as maximizing your own gain from a warzone. Your mileage may vary. (Edited for grammatical and spelling errors.)

You mean Static Charge? I was hoping to avoid speccing and respeccing into it, since I'm not progressing that far up through the tree in my suggested build. But perhaps this is the only way to measure the proc rate in PvP with any semblance of accuracy. These are good points - you want to make sure that the regen lands as early as possible in each between each 10-second interval. On the one hand, if we assume that it lands, say, optimally once every 14 seconds in sustained combat, that means it's 3 points invested in an ability that gives an extra force regen of 0.7/s (compared to Sith Blood 3/3 which adds 2.4/s to base). I'm not sure if the ability is altogether worth it. Assuming it lands, with a single point invested, once every 20 seconds, that's 0.5/s - that would - in my opinion - be worth considering for a single point investment, though. Especially if you consider what other abilites you can get with those 2 points placed elsewhere - Avoidance, Dark Ward or even Sith Defiance. On the other hand however, one could argue that assassin PvP tactics isn't about sustained DPS, in which case you could only safely rely on getting the buff once or twice, hopefully as early in the battle as possible - which would make a case for 3/3.

Without any combat log, is there any way to check how often surging charge procs? I'm following - more or less - the "high regen backstab build" for PvP (at least that's what the codex calls it). Here's the 39-point version I've been following so far: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200rcMs0McZGG0Rkor0z.1 Now, my question is if I really need all three points in saber conduit for it to reliably proc off of surging charge once every 10 seconds. It would seem that if surging charge fires at least 3 times during 10 seconds, one point would be enough (~75% chance of saber conduit triggering) since I'm not progressing further up the tree. Granted, this depends on rotation, and this build is more about spamming maul (single-strike) and not trash/voltaic strike (double-strike) which reduces proc rate a lot. Any thoughts on this? If anyone's curious, I'd be happy to give my take on the benefits of this build.

Anakin: "You're a Jedi Knight, aren't you?" Qui-Gon: "What makes you think that?" Anakin: "I saw your laser sword. Only Jedis carry that kind of weapon."