How to 3-button tank as a Sith Assassin.

[WutsInAName]

No, you aren't. Especially if you're Darkness/madness.

 

You MAY want to re-read the darkness talents =/

[punman]

You MAY want to re-read the darkness talents =/

 

/popcorn

[Sanquind]

Z-board gaming keyboard here. 26 buttons + the shift and ctrl button. So that's 78 combinations at my disposal. Granted the buttons are a bit smaller than the nostromo ones, so it takes a bit more of getting used to. But I used to have a nostromo, and when I switched to the Z-board I never even thought of going back.

[theonepanda]

Looking at my toon, without mods,

 

Thrash does, 600x2 damage, for 23 force (i'm assuming you're taking that force reduction talent).

 

Shock does, 1000 damage, for 39 force.

 

Lets add in mods.

 

Shock will do 1150 damage, and has a 45% chance to do 500 additional.

 

That's 1375 damage, or 35.25 damage/force.

 

Thrash does 1200, or 52.17 damage/force.

 

Since we are energizing lots, we can probably assume exploitive strikes is up.

 

A tank with approximate level appropriate gear will have 20-25% crit. Lets say 25%. You should have little to no surge.

 

Factoring in crit, shock will do about 1546.875 damage, or 39.66 damage/force.

 

Thrash will have 34% crit, and will do on average 1404 damage, or 61.04 damage/force.

 

Now if you went darkness/madness and got claws of decay, thrash will instead do on average 1608 damage, or 69.9 damage/force.

 

This is not to mention the proc chance that thrash will have for Energize, nor its chance for Raze (if you went Darkness/Madness).

 

Nor does it take into account that one of the main mechanics of darkness tanking is Exploitive strikes, and if you're shocking every 6 seconds like a robot then you're

 

 

• clipping exploitive strikes, leading to force starvation and less thrashes for less procs.
  
• using valuable GCD's that should be used by melee abilities (thrash and saber strike) to maximize the use of exploitive strikes.
  

 

 

I'm not sure where you got the idea that I was trolling. I do not post to spout wrong ideas about this class. I also certainly do not post simply to troll or flame.

 

I do not mind if you are wrong. I just don't understand how you can be so smug about it without running the numbers.

 

You can certainly play the way you like. I actually endorsed your 3 button thing, I thought it was neat. This does not mean your 3 button is optimal, or in any way ideal.

[Exiled-Phoenix]

Looking at my toon, without mods,

 

Thrash does, 600x2 damage, for 23 force (i'm assuming you're taking that force reduction talent).

 

Shock does, 1000 damage, for 39 force.

 

Lets add in mods.

 

Shock will do 1150 damage, and has a 45% chance to do 500 additional.

 

That's 1375 damage, or 35.25 damage/force.

 

Thrash does 1200, or 52.17 damage/force.

 

Since we are energizing lots, we can probably assume exploitive strikes is up.

 

A tank with approximate level appropriate gear will have 20-25% crit. Lets say 25%. You should have little to no surge.

 

Factoring in crit, shock will do about 1546.875 damage, or 39.66 damage/force.

 

Thrash will have 34% crit, and will do on average 1404 damage, or 61.04 damage/force.

 

Now if you went darkness/madness and got claws of decay, thrash will instead do on average 1608 damage, or 69.9 damage/force.

 

This is not to mention the proc chance that thrash will have for Energize, nor its chance for Raze (if you went Darkness/Madness).

 

Nor does it take into account that one of the main mechanics of darkness tanking is Exploitive strikes, and if you're shocking every 6 seconds like a robot then you're

 

• clipping exploitive strikes, leading to force starvation and less thrashes for less procs.
  
• using valuable GCD's that should be used by melee abilities (thrash and saber strike) to maximize the use of exploitive strikes.
  

 

I'm not sure where you got the idea that I was trolling. I do not post to spout wrong ideas about this class. I also certainly do not post simply to troll or flame.

 

I do not mind if you are wrong. I just don't understand how you can be so smug about it without running the numbers.

 

You can certainly play the way you like. I actually endorsed your 3 button thing, I thought it was neat. This does not mean your 3 button is optimal, or in any way ideal.

 

3x shock = 3 charged of harnessed darkness = 75% more damage on force lighting + force lighting heals you while you're casting it....

[theonepanda]

And you can't get that from Energize because...?

 

You are never lacking in things to do, and you do not have unlimited force to do it with.

 

Rather than only use...one of our talents, why don't you synergize on all 3? We already have to filler quite often with discharge and wither. If you're trying to force FL also in the tight rotation, you will be mostly force starved.

 

Shrug. We don't really have enough data to see whether that is better, but I doubt it is.

 

There is too much RNG involved, you'll have to simulate (i'm writing one...sometime) and run a few trials.

 

EDIT:

 

Lets ignore external factors and opportunity costs of using force lightning.

 

lets just assume each shock will lead to a lightning, and so we'll tack on 25% lightning damage onto each hardcast nonenergize shock.

 

Lightning does 2092 damage for me; with crit, that becomes ~2353.5 damage.

 

25% of that is 588.38 damage.

 

Adding that onto crit chain shock damage, becomes an average of 2135.25 damage.

 

For 39 force, that amounts to 54.75 damage/force which is STILL lower than non talented crit thrash, on the best case scenario.

 

How much more do I need to do to conclusively prove this is a bad idea?

Edited January 7, 2012 by theonepanda

[Exiled-Phoenix]

I dont even know the correct numbers for my damages but i speced darkness completely and don't have a single point (yet) in any other tree at lvl 36.

 

My gear is all endurance + willpower or endurance + crit with endurance always being the highest number.

With trash i can get energize, with energize i get a critical shock.

My critical shock does more damage then my trash,..after shocking i go back to trash to get energize again for the instant cooldown and crit, after a third time i have 3 charges of darkness with make my lighting look sick compared to my other attacks + it heals me for 1k hp.

 

Thing is, some targets take more damage from lightsabre attacks then from force attacks (like droids, they always seem to take the lowest of damage of any lighting attack).

So saying "this is how you do a good rotation" is stupid.

 

For high lvl mobs, you probably arn't killing them alone, thus your team mates influence come in too.

For normal lvl mobs, you don't need the perfect rotation to kill quickly before you die.

If you have problems killing regular mobs then you are doing something wrong.

[flosofl]

1) Buy a nostromo speedpad (or wait for in game macros lol yea right)

 

2) Set basic attack, Dark Ward, Thrash, Shock, Recklessnes, Discharge, and Lacerate on hot bar.

 

3) Create your basic macro:

- Press Dark Ward

- Press Basic Attack

(This will allow you to have darkward up 100% while simply using your basic attack it is not on GCD so you get to ward and attack, that right it is not a CD)

 

4) Create a priority macro

- Press Recklessness

- Add a 0.05 second dely (Recklessness does not trip GCD but still requires a very small delay it seems)

- Press Shock

- Press Thrash

(This will use recklessnes IF up, then shock IF up, then use thrash. Since shock activates GCD if it up you use it if not trash so you get a 50% chance to refresh shock).

 

5) Create your priority AoE macro

- Press Discharge

- Press Lacerate.

(Since discharge activates GCD will use that if up else lacerate)

 

 

6) When you have lots of force press 2nd macro, if not so much force press first macro, if surrounded press 3rd macro

 

7) Profit

 

 

 

*Note I do press a couple other button from time to time like my oh crap CD or force lightning oh AND force sprint/dash. Love that, other tanks can keep thier leap I get dash and pull, 2 gap closers!!!*

 

Now try it by adding a NAGA mouse. Between the mouse and Nostromo, I have every quickslot bound to a key on the Nostromo or the NAGA. I only have to touch the keyboard to chat

 

My layout is a lot different than yours, but then it would be (everyone plays a little differently). I actually have the D-Pad up-down cycle thru mobs and left-right to strafe.

[washedupgamer]

Going to give this a try with my Logitech G13, juggling all the cooldowns gets tiresome during leveling.

 

Thanks for providing me the motivation to finally get around to doing it -_-

[theonepanda]

I dont even know the correct numbers for my damages but i speced darkness completely and don't have a single point (yet) in any other tree at lvl 36.

 

My gear is all endurance + willpower or endurance + crit with endurance always being the highest number.

With trash i can get energize, with energize i get a critical shock.

My critical shock does more damage then my trash,..after shocking i go back to trash to get energize again for the instant cooldown and crit, after a third time i have 3 charges of darkness with make my lighting look sick compared to my other attacks + it heals me for 1k hp.

 

Thing is, some targets take more damage from lightsabre attacks then from force attacks (like droids, they always seem to take the lowest of damage of any lighting attack).

So saying "this is how you do a good rotation" is stupid.

 

For high lvl mobs, you probably arn't killing them alone, thus your team mates influence come in too.

For normal lvl mobs, you don't need the perfect rotation to kill quickly before you die.

If you have problems killing regular mobs then you are doing something wrong.

 

I don't really know what you're replying to here.

 

First of all, the rotation I posted in my thread is for endgame tanking. It has nothing to do with leveling, though you can certainly use it for that.

 

I never stated the necessity of having the perfect rotation. But I had a problem with the OP's statement that his rotation was better in any way. It isn't. Opinions are one thing. Obviously wrong statements are another.

 

Furthermore, our discussion was specifically about why you SHOULDN'T cast shock without energize...your example for energize is obviously correct but doesn't...apply to the discussion at all.

 

tl;dr, The op says using shock on CD is good. I say it isn't. We both agree that you should use it when Energize procs.

Edited January 7, 2012 by theonepanda