IMHO, this class is broken...

[Cowflab]

I'm currently lvl 38 (about 20% from 39) and just got to Quesh. I'm not sure what y'all are doing that makes this "easy" and able to faceroll golds because I sure as heck am not having that experience.

 

I am darkness spec'ed using the build in the codex (straight up darkness).

 

 

I am currently using the jedi chick as my cohort, but I was using a well-geared Revel before I got her. My crafting skill is BioChem, so I always use endurance/def stims and have the highest lvl medpacks available.

 

My gear is pretty decent - I only have 1 item that doesn't require lvl 33 or above, and that is my relic. My HP are at approx 9100 unbuffed. (I think it's 9066, but close enough).

 

When facing a normal and a strong, I sneak in, pop dark ward, open with dark charge discharge, shock the normal and focus on the normal before moving onto the strong. The jedi chick hits wahtever she feels like (i haven't found a good way to control her w/o losing valuable time doing my own attacks). My basic "rotation" is shock whenever it's up, dark charge discharge when teh debuff is about to wear off, and then thrash unless i need force (in which case i autoattack - lacerate i think it's called). I interrupt with Jolt or whatever the name is when i can, and use electrocute if needed.

 

This plan of attack usually (80% of the time) results in me beating the 2-pack with 10-15% of my life left (and with my companion having 80-100% of hers left). Then it's a long (6-8s) of seething before i re-stealth and move onto the next pack.

 

Gold Elites are an entirely different issue, however. I stealth, CC one, run away, force pull the 2nd, and proceed with the rotation described above. i then ahve to blackout to get out of combat so I can heal because I'm typically at under 300hp.

 

Chamption mobs.... I can't solo. Period. The last champion mob I was able to solo was either 5 or 6 levels below me, and i won with a medpack and still had under 40hp left.

 

The class quests have absolutely been a collection of episodes from the show "Oz". I can't think of the last one I did where I didn't die at least once. Heck, I wiped 3x on the one at the end of the jedi padawan quest series... and I was 3-4 lvls higher than I "should have been" for it.

 

I'm not going into the pvp issues because, quite frankly, most of my pvp time has been spent on my merc healer, so I'm not comfortable enough with playing a melee in pvp in this game.

 

Yes, youre definitely doing it wrong. Unless you mind trap the hard mob, they should always be taken down first. More often than not, the weak mobs will die from splash damage from you and your companion. Their damage is terrible(weak mobs) so it really doesn't matter if you leave them until last.

 

As for getting your companion to assist you, this is probably your biggest problem. The dynamic between player and companion works very much like it does playing with another player. You can split dps all you want but it is not nearly as effective as assisting on the same target. Try binding your companion attack to shift+1, ctrl+1, f1or something like that that is easily accessible with your nonmouse hand. I have never had this problem because I've always had mine bound.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Cowflab

[Kethryweryn]

You'll get Talos, harnessed darkness, chain shock, some stuff, and it will change your life. At level 38 it's the worst tank levels : you're too far away from the level you got dark ward, you didn't get any more resistance, and not a lot of dps either. You'll get the resistance with stuff, and the dps with chain shock/energize/harnessed darkness. ;-)

 

But still ... I found the leveling so easy in tank spec. O_O

 

For the champions, it's normal : you have to kite them at lower levels, and some you can't so ... But the ones you can kite, just use Revel, and kite, taunt when he get's aggro back, shock, lightning to slow, knockback and use your slow, your speed, stun twice, etc. ;-)

[Cowflab]

You'll get Talos, harnessed darkness, chain shock, some stuff, and it will change your life. At level 38 it's the worst tank levels : you're too far away from the level you got dark ward, you didn't get any more resistance, and not a lot of dps either. You'll get the resistance with stuff, and the dps with chain shock/energize/harnessed darkness. ;-)

 

But still ... I found the leveling so easy in tank spec. O_O

 

For the champions, it's normal : you have to kite them at lower levels, and some you can't so ... But the ones you can kite, just use Revel, and kite, taunt when he get's aggro back, shock, lightning to slow, knockback and use your slow, your speed, stun twice, etc. ;-)

 

I never, ever kited a single mob in my leveling process. I leveled as deception to boot and used Khem all the way into the 40 levels. If you HAVE to kite something to not die, its definitely a PEBKAC issue. I didn't even kite the Jedi commander that everyone swears up and down that you have to do. Timely interruptes and stuns, as well as bouncing aggro between you and Khem makes those types of fights a breeze.

 

To each their own I guess...

Edited January 18, 2012 by Cowflab

[JohnTGalt]

Thanks for the advice - I'll try it once i get out of the office.

 

I always figured that focusing on the weak mobs first would lower the overall damage i take, but I will try the "kill the strongest first" approach and see how it works. Sith knows it can't be any worse than it currently is.

[Kethryweryn]

I never, ever kited a single mob in my leveling process. I leveled as deception to boot and used Khem all the way into the 40 levels. If you HAVE to kite something to not die, its definitely a PEBKAC issue. I didn't even kite the Jedi commander that everyone swears up and down that you have to do. Timely interruptes and stuns, as well as bouncing aggro between you and Khem makes those types of fights a breeze.

 

To each their own I guess...

 

She was asking about darkness. And when doing 2+ quests solo in nar shadda, yes, I had to kite some things, strangely. But if you could kill champions at lvl 20 without kiting and darkness specced, good for you

Edited January 18, 2012 by Kethryweryn

[Cowflab]

Thanks for the advice - I'll try it once i get out of the office.

 

I always figured that focusing on the weak mobs first would lower the overall damage i take, but I will try the "kill the strongest first" approach and see how it works. Sith knows it can't be any worse than it currently is.

 

No problem. Unless you're completely overwhelmed by weak mobs, meaning 10+, they're really not going to do any kind of substantial damage to you. I usually will just do a normal stealth opening routine on the strongest mob if the group is 4 or less and I have yet to die in those types of encounters. Well, I should say I never died because I'm not in that part of the game too much anymore.

[Cowflab]

She was asking about darkness. And when doing 2+ quests solo in nar shadda, yes, I had to kite some things, strangely. But if you could kill champions at lvl 20 without kiting and darkness specced, good for you

 

It's even easier to do as darkness than deception...

[Kethryweryn]

It's even easier to do as darkness than deception...

 

Right

 

So how do you do when the champion hits do the same damage as your own, and has more life than both you and your pet combined? Just to know how "good players" do it I mean.

 

Obviously you forgot what it was when you were in nar shadaa. Or you just did your 2+ quests at those level with someone else (as intended). ;-)

[RoguexA]

Right

 

So how do you do when the champion hits do the same damage as your own, and has more life than both you and your pet combined? Just to know how "good players" do it I mean.

 

Obviously you forgot what it was when you were in nar shadaa. Or you just did your 2+ quests at those level with someone else (as intended). ;-)

 

 

I find that it helps with what level you are when you go to these planets. I've always strived to keep my characters atleast 2 levels ahead of said planet. I finished Balmorra at 22, finished Nar Shaddaa at 27, finished Tatooine at 31ish, finished Alderaan at 35, etc etc.

 

Other then that, going up against a group that has a 'Strong' mob in it, I usually just stealth in (This is at 50 btw, slightly differs at lower levels.), Wither, -sometimes- Discharge, Thrash the strong until my Shock procs, use shock (And therefore getting harnessed shadows 1). Thrash a bit more for SHock proc, shock for HS2, Basic attack for generating force, use that AoE spin which is lacerate? Wither a bit more, Shock for HS3, use Force Lightning to regenerate your health, and ALWAYS use assassinate when the mob has less than 30% HP left.

[Kethryweryn]

I find that it helps with what level you are when you go to these planets. I've always strived to keep my characters atleast 2 levels ahead of said planet. I finished Balmorra at 22, finished Nar Shaddaa at 27, finished Tatooine at 31ish, finished Alderaan at 35, etc etc.

 

Why did you quote me? oO

[RoguexA]

For some reason I was under the impression that I was directly replying to you. Then I ranted on about how I deal with these mobs.

 

Apologies :s

[Kethryweryn]

I ... don't really see the point of 2 more levels (which I had) when facing champions as a solo tank with no healer pet in the h2+ quests of nar shadaa. They still do more damage and have more life than you do. Sharing aggro with khemval will only work to a point. I was just pointing out the blatant exageration of Cowflab about the lower levels (as he obviously didn't play darkness at these levels. )

 

Of course you should always have more levels than the planet. It evens out at later levels.

[Menshevik]

I ... don't really see the point of 2 more levels (which I had) when facing champions as a solo tank with no healer pet in the h2+ quests of nar shadaa. They still do more damage and have more life than you do. Sharing aggro with khemval will only work to a point. I was just pointing out the blatant exageration of Cowflab about the lower levels (as he obviously didn't play darkness at these levels. )

 

Of course you should always have more levels than the planet. It evens out at later levels.

 

It's not impossible. When I was on Taris I saw a 35 darkness assassin soloing a nearby h2+ quest. I was 33 at the time (idfk how I fell so far behind by Taris, got hooked on the storyline quests I guess) but I did about two thirds of the quest on my own, only getting shafted by pulls with two elites and a strong, all droids so no mind trap. If I'd been biochem I probably could have knocked those out as well.

[Kethryweryn]

It's not impossible. When I was on Taris I saw a 35 darkness assassin soloing a nearby h2+ quest. I was 33 at the time (idfk how I fell so far behind by Taris, got hooked on the storyline quests I guess) but I did about two thirds of the quest on my own, only getting shafted by pulls with two elites and a strong, all droids so no mind trap. If I'd been biochem I probably could have knocked those out as well.

 

Good lord. I'm not saying it's impossible. I did every h2 quests solo myself except one on balmorra. I just said that, to do it at lower levels, you sometimes have to kite the champion boss in the end. I'll stop replying in threads when people read half of the conversation. xD

[Sarkav]

I agree that you are doing something wrong. I leveled up tank spec and once I got Talos, I just felt like things were too easy. Fights took a little time, but I usually finished at 90%+ health and never had an issue doing any of the boss fights or anything. I liked Revel as a companion too, but it was easier with Talos and zero downtime (safer too as I am on a PvP server and never lost an even level 1v1 fight with my healer companion). I did gear 100% for tank stats though, so maybe that helped since nothing could really touch me with heals coming in.

[Crackofdawn]

I'm sure it's been said already, but 44 is really low for Voss. I know it seems 'about' even level, but if you look in ALL the class forums, pretty much everyone complains when they hit Voss about how underpowered they feel. Most people hit it at 46 or so and even then I see complaining. I hit Voss at 46 on my Sniper and hit 47 shortly afterward and it didn't feel too bad but there were some parts that still gave me some trouble. 44 I would imagine would make the planet annoying. I would go back and do the alderaan bonus series (I think it's level 41), and finish up any other quests from Belsavis or Hoth.

 

Edit: Or even better if you're not doing space missions go do a few of the dailies of those, and ANY quests you have available in your ship called "SPACE COMBAT:", do them, because they give you ridiculous amounts of XP (at level 44 any of the new ones you get will give you around 30k xp each once you factor in in-mission xp plus quest xp plus completion xp.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Crackofdawn

[tsafy]

I haven't had any of your described problems, not on Voss, not with any companion (even though Talos definitely seems to work best as I don't even have to seethe between fights). Try changing your playstyle a bit, as general as this might seem. Even with the huge similarities with other MMOs on the surface, I think SWTOR just requires a different approach.

[Redcoat]

1-50 deception, soloed all class quests. Yes some become insanely difficult as an assassin but doable. If something didn't work I switched companions and tried a different approach. Class quests are meant to get you to use all of your abilities.

[XXThrashteraXX]

I'm level 44 and on Voss. My equipment is mostly orange, with item upgrades for my level that are blue/purple. My gear is better than any quest reward or what I could find on the GTN. The rest of my items are mostly blue (belt, bracers, offhand item, ear, etc), with 1-2 greens my level.

 

I have 11k health.

 

I have tried all 3 specialziations and I find that only the tanking spec is able to come out of most fights alive. I'm talking soloing here. I can't even tank two +1 or +2 "white" mobs without dieing, as a tank spec and that's with Talos! Oh, btw, I can't even function without Talos healing me. Forget using anyone else, I'll die.

 

This class is waaay to squishy. The damage-per-squishy ratio is way off. The double-ended saber damage is laughable for the 2-3 attacks you have and doing 1k damage from my biggest attack is laughable.

 

I have ditched this character because I can't take it anymore. For those below 30, there are tons of Gold elites in the future zones and there are many fights that are just frustrating.

 

This is the most frustrating class I have ever played in 10 years of playing MMO's. Seriously.

 

I love this game and have rerolled a Trooper and so far it's going very well. The Assassin is just an exercise in frustration.

 

 

 

I am level 44 as well have less health than you and I am deception spec and I can solo the heroic 2's on Belvamris or whatever it is called fine. Maybe you are using the wrong companion? I use the healer guy and I upgrade him frequently and he usually keeps me topped off. If it is too hard for you though and I am not trolling here then roll a bounty hunter.

[Manigma]

I'm sure it's been said already, but 44 is really low for Voss. I know it seems 'about' even level, but if you look in ALL the class forums, pretty much everyone complains when they hit Voss about how underpowered they feel. Most people hit it at 46 or so and even then I see complaining. I hit Voss at 46 on my Sniper and hit 47 shortly afterward and it didn't feel too bad but there were some parts that still gave me some trouble. 44 I would imagine would make the planet annoying. I would go back and do the alderaan bonus series (I think it's level 41), and finish up any other quests from Belsavis or Hoth.

xp.

Completely disagree, hitting Voss 2nd time around now at 44, it is not too hard at all, 1 or 2 bosses are tough but I still beat them with more than half health - 50 assassin and just dinged 45 on my op.

 

Did all space missions sometimes twice, did all solo quests and bonus objectives and series - have quite a few companion convos for xp and still only 44 when I landed on Voss. There was a definite lack of xp on Hoth though, only got to lvl 39 once I finished the whole planet.

[Stranded_Law]

I'm currently lvl 38 (about 20% from 39) and just got to Quesh. I'm not sure what y'all are doing that makes this "easy" and able to faceroll golds because I sure as heck am not having that experience.

 

I am darkness spec'ed using the build in the codex (straight up darkness).

 

 

I am currently using the jedi chick as my cohort, but I was using a well-geared Revel before I got her. My crafting skill is BioChem, so I always use endurance/def stims and have the highest lvl medpacks available.

 

 

 

When you say "highest medpaks available", you do mean the reusable ones, right? (The purple ones)

 

What I'm concerned about here...is that you're almost 39 on Quesh and having problems, when Quesh is designed for 36-37, and a fair number of people get there at 35 (like myself). You should not be having any issue obliterating things on Quesh at 38/39.

 

 

 

When facing a normal and a strong, I sneak in, pop dark ward, open with dark charge discharge, shock the normal and focus on the normal before moving onto the strong. The jedi chick hits wahtever she feels like (i haven't found a good way to control her w/o losing valuable time doing my own attacks). My basic "rotation" is shock whenever it's up, dark charge discharge when teh debuff is about to wear off, and then thrash unless i need force (in which case i autoattack - lacerate i think it's called). I interrupt with Jolt or whatever the name is when i can, and use electrocute if needed.

 

This plan of attack usually (80% of the time) results in me beating the 2-pack with 10-15% of my life left (and with my companion having 80-100% of hers left). Then it's a long (6-8s) of seething before i re-stealth and move onto the next pack.

 

Gold Elites are an entirely different issue, however. I stealth, CC one, run away, force pull the 2nd, and proceed with the rotation described above. i then ahve to blackout to get out of combat so I can heal because I'm typically at under 300hp.

 

 

 

Let me just explain to you what comes naturally to me as I'm touring Quesh at lvl 35 and 36. I've since left Quesh, and am 1/4 way through Hoth and almost 37.

 

Normal and a Strong with Ashara is easy and can be done without stealth. She will kill the normal by herself very quickly(she will go fight him alone without you needing to tell her), and all you have to do is fight a strong on your own for the first half of his hp. If you are more patient, you Mindtrap the strong, waste the normal and team up on the strong...end the fight full hp if you use a medpak at the end. (Seriously, reverse-engineer those medpaks and get yourself reusable ones. Use them every few minutes without hesitation.)

 

But instead of talking about an easy fight, how about a hard one? There was an objective on Quesh that was being guarded by three Strongs. At lvl 35, just about to turn 36, this was hard. Stealth in -> Mindtrap the strongest (generally there will be 2 types, with one slightly harder, sap the harder), Dark Ward + Blackout to position yourself, go to the furthest one from the sapped - open with Maul (I still open with Maul, but I'm now at the point where I'm close to simply taking it off my bar), pop deflection and drag back. Ashara will join you at first, before she strays - so Whirlwind the second one immediately. Pop cooldowns and burn the first one down fast. When the second one's WW wears off, electrocute him, and keep burning. Pop medpak, Overload and Discharge as necessary. Hit Dark Ward any time it's almost worn off, and get recklessness back when possible.

 

The third one's Mindtrap will wear off when you're just about done the second Strong, so he'll come smack you a bit while you finish the second, electrocute or whirlwind him to give yourself a few seconds of breath. Then hold on to your seat as you finish the third with low HP. Keep an eye on CDs and re-pop them as this is a long fight. Dark Ward is your savior, if you've ever forgotten it and let it not be active when you're getting hit - you may have lost yourself the fight.

 

3 lvl 37 Strongs at lvl 35 Darkness. I am by no means an expert, and this is sloppy as hell...but I survived.

 

I would rather fight two Gold Elites than three Strong ANY DAY. One Elite vs Two Strongs is a cake-walk. The only time I have trouble is if the Elite is 4 levels or higher than me, as they resist and dodge sometimes, making life difficult. Not sure if you noticed, but the major difference between elites and strongs is HP, not damage. They don't hit much harder, they just take a lot longer to kill. Having two strongs beating on you hurts more than one elite by far.

 

 

Chamption mobs.... I can't solo. Period. The last champion mob I was able to solo was either 5 or 6 levels below me, and i won with a medpack and still had under 40hp left.

 

The class quests have absolutely been a collection of episodes from the show "Oz". I can't think of the last one I did where I didn't die at least once. Heck, I wiped 3x on the one at the end of the jedi padawan quest series... and I was 3-4 lvls higher than I "should have been" for it.

 

I'm not going into the pvp issues because, quite frankly, most of my pvp time has been spent on my merc healer, so I'm not comfortable enough with playing a melee in pvp in this game.

 

 

Champion mobs? The ones with 100k hp? I'm confused...the time spent trying to solo those would be much better spent elsewhere. I must be thinking of something else. I 2-manned a world boss mob that had 80k hp and hit for 7-800 per shot, the only reason we were able to defeat it with a 2-man group was because the other guy was a healer and had Khem Val to trade aggro with. Anyone my lvl who say they could solo that is a liar.

[Solonumsen]

The only buff assassins need is make maul useful w/o spending 5 talents for it in deception, and maybe some armor pen in Deception somewhere. Give me operative burst and the class is beyond broken lmao

 

+1

 

Cya

[JohnTGalt]

When you say "highest medpaks available", you do mean the reusable ones, right? (The purple ones)

 

Sorry - I meant the ones that I can make and use that aren't reusable. I figured I wouldn't spend my cash on making purples until I'm lvl 50, have all skills and gear, and have tons of spare credits lying around.

 

 

What I'm concerned about here...is that you're almost 39 on Quesh and having problems, when Quesh is designed for 36-37, and a fair number of people get there at 35 (like myself). You should not be having any issue obliterating things on Quesh at 38/39.

 

Let me just explain to you what comes naturally to me as I'm touring Quesh at lvl 35 and 36. I've since left Quesh, and am 1/4 way through Hoth and almost 37.

 

Normal and a Strong with Ashara is easy and can be done without stealth. She will kill the normal by herself very quickly(she will go fight him alone without you needing to tell her), and all you have to do is fight a strong on your own for the first half of his hp. If you are more patient, you Mindtrap the strong, waste the normal and team up on the strong...end the fight full hp if you use a medpak at the end. (Seriously, reverse-engineer those medpaks and get yourself reusable ones. Use them every few minutes without hesitation.)

 

I don't know how you do this that easily. I'm usually 1/2 dead (and so is the mob) by the time the weak one is down. Then it's a DPS race to kill the strong before I die. I timed fighting strongs last night (lots of kill 15/25/30 mob quests, so easy to time things), and I average 50-65 seconds to kill a single strong. Killing a weak and a strong averaged 86-98 seconds for the fights I won, and slightly under that for fights I lost.

 

But instead of talking about an easy fight, how about a hard one? There was an objective on Quesh that was being guarded by three Strongs. At lvl 35, just about to turn 36, this was hard. Stealth in -> Mindtrap the strongest (generally there will be 2 types, with one slightly harder, sap the harder), Dark Ward + Blackout to position yourself, go to the furthest one from the sapped - open with Maul (I still open with Maul, but I'm now at the point where I'm close to simply taking it off my bar), pop deflection and drag back. Ashara will join you at first, before she strays - so Whirlwind the second one immediately. Pop cooldowns and burn the first one down fast. When the second one's WW wears off, electrocute him, and keep burning. Pop medpak, Overload and Discharge as necessary. Hit Dark Ward any time it's almost worn off, and get recklessness back when possible.

 

The third one's Mindtrap will wear off when you're just about done the second Strong, so he'll come smack you a bit while you finish the second, electrocute or whirlwind him to give yourself a few seconds of breath. Then hold on to your seat as you finish the third with low HP. Keep an eye on CDs and re-pop them as this is a long fight. Dark Ward is your savior, if you've ever forgotten it and let it not be active when you're getting hit - you may have lost yourself the fight.

 

I got to this fight last night. I sapped one and force pulled away from the sapped mob so that splash damage wouldn't wake it up. I got 1 strong down and died before I got the 2nd one down. Rez'ed, sapped again, force pulled, and killed the 2nd strong.. used blackout to get out of combat, healed up, and then took out the 3rd. I always use Dark Ward on CD (or close to it) - I played a paladin tank in WoW for 6 years (when Holy Shield was a hit the button or die ability).

 

Champion mobs? The ones with 100k hp? I'm confused...the time spent trying to solo those would be much better spent elsewhere. I must be thinking of something else. I 2-manned a world boss mob that had 80k hp and hit for 7-800 per shot, the only reason we were able to defeat it with a 2-man group was because the other guy was a healer and had Khem Val to trade aggro with. Anyone my lvl who say they could solo that is a liar.

 

No, not 100k mobs. I mean the ones with the white * next to their names (like Jedi Masters, etc) - the level above the gold elites.

Edited January 19, 2012 by JohnTGalt

[Stranded_Law]

Sorry - I meant the ones that I can make and use that aren't reusable. I figured I wouldn't spend my cash on making purples until I'm lvl 50, have all skills and gear, and have tons of spare credits lying around.

 

 

 

Maybe that's smarter money-wise, I don't know. I'm 37 right now, have Biochem 352, Bioanalysis 360, and Diplomacy 275. I've spent a lot of credits sending them on those missions...but I have the best Biochem gear available to me.

 

I'm not broke, but saving for the lvl 40 speeder training WILL mean not crafting for a full level or two.

 

 

I don't know how you do this that easily. I'm usually 1/2 dead (and so is the mob) by the time the weak one is down. Then it's a DPS race to kill the strong before I die.

 

 

 

I got to this fight last night. I sapped one and force pulled away from the sapped mob so that splash damage wouldn't wake it up. I got 1 strong down and died before I got the 2nd one down. Rez'ed, sapped again, force pulled, and killed the 2nd strong.. used blackout to get out of combat, healed up, and then took out the 3rd. I always use Dark Ward on CD (or close to it) - I played a paladin tank in WoW for 6 years (when Holy Shield was a hit the button or die ability).

 

 

 

No, not 100k mobs. I mean the ones with the white * next to their names (like Jedi Masters, etc) - the level above the gold elites.

 

 

If you're higher level than me, but are 1/2 dead fighting Quesh Strongs, while being an experienced player, I honestly have no idea what to tell you. On Hoth at 37, with Dark Charge's buff this patch, I finish soloing a Strong without Ashara and still have 90%+ hp.

 

Dark Ward, Deflection, Recklessness, Relics...you have tools to end fights quick and avoid damage while doing it. I also have mostly orange gear, with mostly 34-38 mods in them, if that helps. I use epic implants and ear, as well as a fully modded 38class dbl saber. I have defense, shielding and absorption on my gear.

[JohnTGalt]

It might be a gear issue - I only have 2 orange (moddable) items - my head and a pair of gloves. I haven't had very good luck with drops, so the rest of my gear is green or blue (mostly green).

 

I guess its time to go to the GTN and see if I can pick up some orange stuffwith my 92k credits (dying = repairs = low income makes me sad, but such is life atm).