Best shadow pvp spec

[Oxinatah]

Hey guys,

 

I was just wondering what the best current pvp spec is? Also if you have any idea what is the best pve spec?

 

Thanks,

Oda

[Silentwho]

no clue, but I run 31/0/10 and so far it's working great for pvp and pve.

[raistek]

I'm playing as standard upheaval infiltration. Burst with cooldowns + one consumable is awsome.

 

0/33/8 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601ZhGrRkhrbtzZf0c.1

[Atrophine]

I'm playing as standard upheaval infiltration. Burst with cooldowns + one consumable is awsome.

 

0/33/8 http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601ZhGrRkhrbtzZf0c.1

 

 

I have started this spec, could someone please list the order in which to spend you points for this spec.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Atrophine

[Electroflux]

infiltration. you'll wreck anyone 1 v 1 but most importantly, sorcerers. they buckle so quickly and cry like babies. ahhh, yeah. Edited January 14, 2012 by Electroflux

[Powerr]

you can refer to this thread if you would like

[kckkryptonite]

Deep Infil is great for 1v1's but unfortunately relatively terribad for WZs unless you have a pocket healer, but come on - post-flamespear nerf warriors in Rift did good with pocket healers...

[Oxinatah]

Thanks for the info guys! So if infil is mainly just for 1v1 what would be good WZ specs?

 

Thanks,

Oda

[Oxinatah]

So what spec are most people running in the 50 bracket now? Kinetic hybrid or what? Also what spec is the best for pug WZ's?

 

Thanks guys,

Oda

[suspendedstasis]

I've been running Balance for WZs.

 

Due to all the dots we can effectively lock down cap points for a while. And while not the 1v1 kings that Infils are, I feel like I put out a lot of pressure on the other team.

[Haree]

I would swear by this spec:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MZGGbRkG0btzZf0c.1

 

AOE damage is massive in this game and with gear the extra armour of Shadowy Veil is something like 4.5% reduction in melee and ranged damage.

 

I do not need Force Cloak more often with good play and I have never ever felt I lost out on Force Slow in a Warzone.

 

If I was to move anything to reduce Force Cloak and better force slow I would drop some in infiltration tactics, you really don't need it once you are well geared.

 

Warzones often need high dps like a Clairvoyant Strike spec can give but this makes you squishy, the survivability talents in this spec really do make a nice difference and in warzones survivability is bloody important!

[Oxinatah]

Thanks for the build. I do hear more and more people talking about a Kinetic pvp build. Is that viable or is deep Infil pretty much the standard these days? Does it come down to preference or is there truely a "best spec"?

 

Thanks,

Oda

[Haree]

I worked out a lot of different specs in PvP, I tried and discounted a lot of the builds posted on the forums because I could find better, you have to realise that a lot of it was just people playing with the calculators and thinking they had found a great build when they weren't 50 yet.

 

When I was undergeared this was by far the best build I had:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rcrokrskdZhGbMzZz.1

 

I used a shield instead of Focus and the rest of my gear was all dps gear.

I could be stupidly survivable, amazing at defending a node. And back in the day before crazy gear, level 50 bracket and higher expertise I wouldn't think twice about taking on 3 people to capture a node.

 

Use Force Potency on 3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows or for when you need to stop a cap on a node up to 30m. You get loads of free kills in Hutt Ball with Force Pull, especially from stealth. And you can do some real flair moves jumping in to the pit before the touchdown zone and Force Pulling as you fall to take the ball carrier with you.

Sit in Combat Technique, only use Guard when you have a good healer with you because you will be focused a lot.

Always keep Kinetic Ward up.

1v1 I would only lose to Clairvoyant Strike shadows amusingly and Operatives that opened on me.

 

This build has been buffed since the days when I used to use it with Combat Technique changes, I tried it again and swapped back quickly when I realised the groups I go with needed the higher dps.

[Paganini]

2/31/8 upheaval

17/21/3

31/0/10 is pretty good for huttball

[AMKSED]

My personal favorites.

 

12/21/8 Tanky DPS

3/31/7 Spike DPS

22/2/14 Tanky+ DPS

[Kupke]

Tried:

 

2/31/8

31/0/10

23/0/18

10/0/31

 

The most powerful one currently seems to be 23/0/18, which is starting to seem like our cookiecutter hybrid pvp build. 2/31/8 is also nice, but since I'm undergeared for 50s warzones (little expertise, low crit/surge), I'm gonna stick it out with the hybrid build for a little longer.

[_Scattered_]

There are a few things that characterize infiltration/upheaval.

 

1. Control

2. Cool down based burst

3. Squishiness

 

We are vulnerable to being focused in larger scale engagements because:

 

1. Our control has diminished effectiveness in limiting incoming damage against many opponents.

2. Our cool down based burst means that in longer larger scale fights this burst becomes a smaller % of our overall damage.

3. Our squishiness further emphasizes our vulnerability to being focused.

 

Infiltration really excels at defending/assaulting the "other" door/node, because our cool downs are more likely to be ready and the small scale fights means we can overcome our squishiness with our high control/burst.

 

We are an excellent 1v1/1v2/2v2/2v3 class, so in war zones you should try to exploit this as much possible. Even if that means having low overall damage, you'll still be making those critical kills when defending or assaulting an objective which could be a deciding factor in who wins the game.

 

Obviously this only applies to pug games.

Edited January 23, 2012 by _Scattered_

[Renvana]

Personally there are two options here:

 

1. Build yourself for Dueling with Infiltration

 

2. Build yourself for endurance and survival with Kinetic Combat

 

 

Personally like the Kinetic Combat better, being able to survive almost anything regardless of health level (Took down a Battlemaster Assassin who was Infiltration when my health was at 23% to start versus him fresh out of respawn).

 

But the two differences are more about playstyle.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601bIrokrskbsZZf0cM.1

 

That is what I'm currently using for Kinetic Combat both for PvE tanking and PvP fighting.

Slow time combine with Taunting reduces damage on allies by 35% and 5% against you.

Force Break over nerve racking because use of stuns is limited to resolve bar and CC, Breach and Slow are used almost as soon as they cool down to reduce incoming damage.

 

Upheaval combine with Particle Acceleration and Force Potency is obsurb, against targets still doing 2-3K a hit after their DR.

 

Did not take expertise as still unsure if that also increases healing received from Combat Technique.

 

With Rakata Relic + Deflection in Champion gear, you can boost your defense to over 100% for 12 second bursts when you are fighting multiple people.

or rotate them to keep your Defense Chance above 50% then hit a shield+absorb relic to endure even longer.

[TheJonnyDerp]

Tried:

 

2/31/8

31/0/10

23/0/18

10/0/31

 

The most powerful one currently seems to be 23/0/18, which is starting to seem like our cookiecutter hybrid pvp build. 2/31/8 is also nice, but since I'm undergeared for 50s warzones (little expertise, low crit/surge), I'm gonna stick it out with the hybrid build for a little longer.

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601RcrokrskZZf0cRrMz.1

 

Agreed about the hybrid. Good (spamable) damage without needing to set up procs beforehand, high survivability. Only thing I don't like to take on 1v1 are other tanks/sorc healers.

[Smerte]

I am one of the few shadows on my server that seems to go for this Hybrid:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rIMokbskfZhGbMz.1

 

I like the diversity the build gives me. I can do decent spike damage when needed (far from best, but I said decent!). Also, the blackout regen buff comes in handy, to get your force pool up again after a longer fight, or when you just need to waste a lot of force to finish the job quickly.

 

But mostly this build gives me great group play capabilities (survivability, guard, self-heals, great CC, and next to that, very good sustained damage.

 

Another pro is, I can tank in PvE just fine. I just swap my gear from Battlemaster Stalker gear (2 pieces surviver for the lower cooldown), to PvE survivor gear.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Smerte

[Zunzun]

Kinetic hybrids are currently shadows best working builds in pvp.

 

23/0/18

23/18/0

27/14/0

27/0/14

 

Infiltration won't give that much more damage. I really often hit 400k on voidstar with a 27/0/14 build. But on the other hand, survivability increase with KC builds is huge, and it brings far more utility. Currently, infiltration only use in PvP would be to take down a single target faster in order to cap a point.

[Jaimeruacho]

8/2/31

 

Amazing DPS and amazing for Tanking PvE

[Kupke]

i find that infiltration burst is significantly higher, but pressure seems higher with a hybrid kinetic build. Both have their merits.

 

One thing i don't like about hybrid balance build is the ground casting aoe of FiB.

[anstalt]

There are only two builds that I consider at the moment:

 

0/33/8

 

Fairly standard upheaval DPS spec.

 

23/0/18

 

Also fairly standard pvp tank spec.

 

 

My advice would be to try and spec depending on who you play with most. The DPS spec has really great burst DPS and I also spec for the CD on interupt, the CD on force cloak and the CD on force slow. This means that although I'm squishy when focused I have enough skills to get out of there quick! When in a premade, this spec is for assisting on the main target, controlling healers (CC, interupts plus burst dps basically removes healers from the game). What you have to make sure though is that you aren't the first person to be targeted. Wait until combat is joined, then join in urself. People are slow to switch targets so let a tank run in first.

 

 

For the second build, this is much more about controlling the battle and defending stuff than it is killing. Although people can post crazy numbers in tank builds, your *effective* dps is lessened. You gain more AoE damage through combat technique's force breach and through force in balance but if they have an effective healer then its mostly useless. In this build you are looking to protect your healer with guard, taunts etc, act as the main assist (you can pull targets), control the battlefield (instant force lift is awesome) and defend doors / turrets using your AoE to interupt and your instant cast DoT. This is the build I'm using atm with half dps gear / half tank gear. Its a great build, full of utility but lacking on burst. I prefer full dps build but my guild lacks pvp tanks.

[soccersmitty]

Here is the current build I use: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rcrozrskZhGdMk0R.1

 

I have a lot of fun with this build. Original intention was to be a full tank, but knew infilitration would be better for leveling so just speced that and planned to respec as i got higher. but the more i tinkered around with this combo the more i liked it. have respeced a few times tryin to find a good combo with these two skill trees (kinetic and infiltration).

 

I am a fairly well equipped shadow, having full champion gear in addition to 4 pieces of battlemaster (battlemaster body sexyyyy). I am geared full DPS upon researching and finding out how worthless kinetic ward is. The ineffectivness of shield absorb/shield rating gear in PVP (which i am not mistaking this am I?) is the reasoning for my full DPS gear.

 

I can say with great confidence i am a top 3 medal getter overall 95~% of the time, if not more. I am top 3 total damage on my team roughly the same ammount of times(maybe a lil less tho when it comes to the overall damage). I do have a healing buddy playing with me a lot, however I have noticed similar outcomes in games i play w/o him.

 

In comparison to other shadows, the only ones that out DPS me are obviously the infiltration. However the protection abilitites (important to note guard from combat technique) I have as well as the overall utility this build has (*********** GREAT for Huttball, great for defending nodes/objectives) I feel gives it the edge when it comes to pvp OVERALL. Ive played with a lot of hybrid kinetic/force shadows and have for the most part out DDed them, however the numbers have varied and they have outscored me on a few occasions. Again, I have full champ and battlemaster gear, so no conclusive evidence can reallly be provided until parses come out with similar geared players and skills...and o ya a combat log. Plus this is just speculation on my shady memory, and there are far too many factors to take into account. Howver I feel this gives a good marker. I think in the end a hybrid kinetic with either force or infilitration will be effective, it will just boil down to skill, player gear, and the player style preference.