My Impressions Of Shadow (Some Gripes)!

[Frostbird]

My first class through. For the most part, a lot of fun. Honestly, in terms of pure mechanics this class is *brokenly* strong when it comes to soloing/tanking and the only time I had any trouble was when I overpulled or tried to take on higher level gold mobs by myself.

 

However...

 

1) I am a Jedi Shadow. A finesse based infiltrator/'good' assasin/troubleshooter. But my storyline is basically that of a healer

who goes around sacrificing himself to protect characters that you barely know via some very unspecific 'shield' ability that was learned in 3 seconds.

 

 

2)

*WHY* can't I just teach the ritual to someone else?

 

 

3) Why don't I get to infiltrate or do shadowy stuff?

 

4) Act 1 felt like a maguffin hunt.

Except the maguffins were infected Masters.

 

 

5) No interesting companion until 20s. No female companion until 40s (highly annoying).

 

6) Why does an infiltration class use the most ostentatious weapon possible?

 

7) Why does my project have a 1 second delay compared to it's mirror? So irritating.

 

8) The class is absurdly strong at AOE tanking and is either due a nerf or JKs need a buffing.

 

9) Why does my ship look like a giant hovercar?

 

 

I enjoyed my Shadow for the most part - but the class and quest overall felt like the designers *want* you to play a Sage. A female one.

 

 

Starting work on my Sith Warrior this evening.

[Samyrius]

8) The class is absurdly strong at AOE tanking and is either due a nerf or JKs need a buffing.

What? Shadows are the WORST class for AOE tanking.

 

The other concerns are mostly subjective but I agree with the majority of them.

[Frostbird]

What? Shadows are the WORST class for AOE tanking.

 

The other concerns are mostly subjective but I agree with the majority of them.

 

Yeah, it's 100% subjective Really, I found that with slow time it's awesome, and after the buff it's going to be crazy. Compared to my friend's JK who has to tab target and pray to hold threat on 3 targets.

[Belly]

even at 49, i'm having quite a bit of trouble holding aggro on multiple enemies. Even my companion can pull aggro off me sometimes lol Single targets, no problem.

 

The Consular storyline is more of a diplomat (read: Obi-Wan) I've found it pretty enjoyable myself

 

But I do agree, the storyline is more Sage than Shadow. The companions as well, as even your tanks can get burned pretty quickly without heals

 

EDIT:

 

Wanted to add a gripe of my own. What's with how these NPCS talk to me? I'm a freakin Jedi Master for Force's sake! Even the Jedi NPCs should be showing more respect I think.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Belly

[Frostbird]

even at 49, i'm having quite a bit of trouble holding aggro on multiple enemies. Even my companion can pull aggro off me sometimes lol Single targets, no problem.

 

The Consular storyline is more of a diplomat (read: Obi-Wan) I've found it pretty enjoyable myself

 

But I do agree, the storyline is more Sage than Shadow. The companions as well, as even your tanks can get burned pretty quickly without heals

 

Is your companion the Lizard dude, or using a taunt? I never had this problem.

 

I would have loved to see Shadow/Sage differences in the storyline, considering how different the two classes are both lore wise and in feel.

[Belly]

Even without taunts my DPS companions can sometimes pull aggro off me, unless i'm guarding them or I use my group taunt. But that might be because i'm playing with almost a full second (800+ms) of lag

 

And yeah Sage/Shadow are probably the most varied of the advanced classes lore-wise. Commando/Vanguard, Guardian/Sentinel, Scoundrel/Gunslinger? They could certainly have the same story line and lore.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Belly

[Frostbird]

Even without taunts my DPS companions can sometimes pull aggro off me, unless i'm guarding them or I use my group taunt. But that might be because i'm playing with almost a full second (800+ms) of lag

 

And yeah Sage/Shadow are probably the most varied of the advanced classes lore-wise. Commando/Vanguard, Guardian/Sentinel, Scoundrel/Gunslinger? They could certainly have the same story line and lore.

 

Yikes - I feel your pain. Had similar problems back in Africa (much better in Japan though).

 

As said, was primarily going off what I read on the forums coupled with my experiences tanking in game. At present, it looks like:

 

BH/Trooper > Shadow/Sassy ----------------- > ------------------ JK/SW.

[dronepilot]

8) The class is absurdly strong at AOE tanking and is either due a nerf or JKs need a buffing.

 

I think you must be really joking. Shadows are not that great when it comes to AOE, in fact were one of the worst classes for it. Besides you nerf the Shadow - your making the class even more un viable for people to play, may as well just scrap the class. Bioware I cannot see doing that, and hopefully will try to re balance them in a more positive way.

[anstalt]

Must admit, the storyline really sucks from a shadow's point of view so I kind of just "adapted" it for my own purposes!

 

Basically, I went full dark side so the story line of "saving" all those jedi masters became more like "quick, go take them out before anyone notices". Was quite funny, I've killed virtually every jedi I've met during the story line and still they think I'm awesome. Pretty much only Satele, Jeric and Nadia are left standing

[oddmyth]

I enjoyed my Shadow for the most part - but the class and quest overall felt like the designers *want* you to play a Sage. A female one.

 

The class is Jedi Consular, you're a diplomat. Not a rogue/thief/whatever.

If you wanted to play that storyline than Scoundrel/Gunslinger forums are that way <-----.

[Mekkanon]

I play my shadow exactly as the infiltrating type. I sneak in, kill someone or solve problems and im out again. I stealth and Mind haze myself through stuff!

 

For my my consular is Strenght through wisdom, not through intimidation.

[Kitru]

1) I am a Jedi Shadow. A finesse based infiltrator/'good' assasin/troubleshooter. But my storyline is basically that of a healer

 

Because you are not actually an infiltrator/assassin/troubleshooter. You are a Consular, first and foremost, which means you are a teacher and a diplomat and, when needed, the secret police of the order. As a member of this secret police, it is not your job to go an assassinate problematic members but to instead find out what is going on and eliminate the trouble at its source. Since you are skilled at combat *and* at complex use of the Force (you can use your Force powers to bend light around your and make you invisible, slow down time, and sever a target's connection to the Force; that's about as complex as you can get), if the problem is Force related, you aren't simply left with the option to kill someone.

 

The most important thing to remember is that your class, from a story and thematic perspective, is determined by your base class, not your advanced class. It also wouldn't make sense for the Jedi to keep an assassin on hand, since it's not really in their playbook (since killing is only a last resort).

 

6) Why does an infiltration class use the most ostentatious weapon possible?

 

Because all lightsabers are outrageously ostentatious. At least Shadows don't use the wild and way more ostentatious saber-dancing of the Knight.

 

8) The class is absurdly strong at AOE tanking and is either due a nerf or JKs need a buffing.

 

We have both the worst AoE mitigation and the worst AoE threat generation. If you know a JK that is having a harder time with AoE or damage than you, s/he needs to learn to use Force Sweep and Cyclone Slash better (Force Sweep does more damage than all 3 of our AoEs combined, is on a shorter CD, and costs comparatively less).

 

I enjoyed my Shadow for the most part - but the class and quest overall felt like the designers *want* you to play a Sage. A female one.

 

Because you're supposed to be an intuitive diplomatic character, because you're a Consular, rather than a sneaky assassin type, which isn't even the concept encompasses the Shadow? The problem you're having is that you're bringing in your own preconceived notions of what the class should be and getting upset when that preconceived notion is completely unlike the actual implementation of the class that follows a totally different concept.

 

Shadows and Sages are both Consulars, first and foremost. For the story, they are the exact same class and, as far as the game is concerned, person. The Shadow/Sage differentiation is simply a splitting of combat style specialization: Shadows are Consulars that went for more saber-fu while still keeping Force use as their primary weapon while Sages are Consulars that pretty much abandoned saber combat in order to exclusively use the Force. Shadows and Sages still fulfill the same roles in the order: teachers. diplomats, and watchers-on-the-inside: the story makes sense for either if you're not assuming that Shadows are something they're not (though the fact that my Shadow has used the Force to actually *heal* someone rather than use the shielding technique seems a bit off, though I'm willing to accept the explanation someone else gave me that Shadows still know how to heal, but they cannot accomplish this feet as quickly and easily as a Sage could).