Leveling as an assassin

[Faydeawayy]

Hello. I am new to the game and decided to roll an assassin. I have always been interested in the stealth users on MMO's, and always found the pvp to be fun. I hear a lot of different opinions on assassins in pvp, but i figure the only real way to know is by experience. I want to get to 50 as efficiently as possible. Is there a best spec to go as far as speed in leveling? And is there a specific companion i should be using? Thanks in advance.

[wraithaur]

i started out deception, looking for better survivability i tried out madness for the self healing and aoe ability. Then settled on Darkness and a heal pet for elites and "strong" mobs that are higher level than me. DPS pet for general groups. If i had to kill heaps of mobs i would always bring out the healer companion so i wouldn't have any down time.

 

Using a darkness build means never dying and never having to use Seethe really. You also don't need to think as much about each pull. Just run in and start hacking, i even stopped using stealth alot of the time because it cost me time to setup for a Maul opener.

 

For speed leveling in world pve content i found the tank spec (Darkness) the fastest.

[Jhool]

Generally it is recommended to level as deception to 25 or more. Check out one of the guides for more information.

 

You get your healing Companion at around level 38, and then I found Darkness really suited my play style - as I hate having to rest between fights. Admittedly the fights take a little longer - so it is a trade off.

 

Having a geared healing companion is also useful for Heroic 4 quests - as they can be potentially used in place of a healer, and you just need one or 2 dps.

[sankalp]

Lvling as pure deception and It is awesome. yes you seethe a bit etc but I dont mind it all that much. Since Talos, it has been a breeze. I am at 44 destroying most elites without any issues.

 

I find it better than darkness simply because you have to do a lot rather than getting your companion doing all the damage. I prefer dishing out my own damage

[Pashgan]

Leveled with Deception and Khem (to spam maul from behind). With Talos (healing companion after Hoth) game becomes much more easy.

 

At level 50 respecced into Darkness/tank as there is high demand for tanks in PvE and low for mDPS. Also harpoon is very helpful when you need to finish "30 kills" daily on ilum.

[Blades_of_Afro]

Well I started as a dps dec because I got 8 tropics for the first time in Pvp at the lvl 12, but then I switched to darkness because the pve was really hard facing elite and groups of mobs. So I switched to darkness and tried pvping at lvl 20 and sucked, but I kept with it an pushed throw until lvl 47. Now I do 200k damage, I die once r twice without healer and I go undefeated with a healer (that does there job and don't freak out when 2 people r attacking them). The most medals I got with my tank is 9.

 

 

Also gives u 3 ways to stop a attacker charged attack!! To me this is the best class!!

Edited January 24, 2012 by Blades_of_Afro

[Stigas]

I'm 46 and I've spent the last 4 or 5 levels as Madness or Deception. Talos, when geared, is a machine and is really all you need. Pick the spec you enjoy. If it's Tank then I'd probably use Ashara. If it's DPS I'd use Talos. Find which works better for you - Dark Charge or Surging/Lightning.

 

Advice in this thread was on point. Do -all- the quests on a planet until they're only giving 5exp (I haven't run into this issue). It's not worth the time and frustration of fighting Yellow mobs all the way up.

[LordbishopX]

Been leveling full deception against silvers and trash I use Ashars mind trap the silver and burn em down fast. I break out Talos vs gold elites and champions and use dark charge mode safer and slower but works and thats all that matters to me lol.

[Faydeawayy]

Thanks to everyone for their replies. I decided to spec into Deception before getting any answers to this thread and im loving it, so im glad to see that the majority is saying the same. I use Khem to tank for me and i get through everything no problem. When i get this Talos companion i should start using him over Khem then?

[Stigas]

Thanks to everyone for their replies. I decided to spec into Deception before getting any answers to this thread and im loving it, so im glad to see that the majority is saying the same. I use Khem to tank for me and i get through everything no problem. When i get this Talos companion i should start using him over Khem then?

 

I use him all the time just so I don't have to Seethe between pulls. Ashara would probably make the kills faster but I like knowing I have heals if I get ganked.

[Sabbathius]

There's really no "best" way to level an Assassin. They all suck, compared to most other classes.

 

Simply put, other classes (ALL of them!) get their healer companion a lot sooner than you. And leveling without a healer companion you will take a ton of downtime, regardless of what spec you use. You CAN sort of counter that by gearing out the ship droid. But he does virtually zero DPS, not worth it. You'll level very safely, and insanely slowly.

 

If you go DPS and make a companion tank for you, it goes OK, but no matter how much you gear them they will still take considerable damage as you level up. Resulting in tons of downtime once again.

 

Or you can go tank and make the pet DPS. But in this case you'll end up taking more damage, as kills will be much slower, since companion DPS is much lower than yours (when you are specced DPS).

 

In other words, until you get your healing companion, leveling an Assassin really sucks no matter how you do it. At least in my experience. Possibly the slowest char I leveled so far.

 

EDIT:

 

I'll give you one good piece of leveling advice - you have stealth, USE IT!

 

All those grinding bonuses of "kill 40 sand people", ignore them. Just stealth to the quest/NPC, do it, turn in. Move on to next quest. Instead of spending 20 mins grinding through a cave to reach the end and kill the boss, just stealth there and drop him. It'll be a lot less boring.

 

Make use of space combat dailies, they give quite decent XP for 5-7 mins the mission takes, without any travel time. PvP I don't recommend beyond level 25 - the 10k or so XP you get after 15 min match is a lot less than you can make soloing.

Edited January 24, 2012 by Sabbathius

[Harmsed]

I fully disagree with you.

 

I leveled a Sith Warrior, and when I got to to lvl 20's i really started to struggle, died alot...

Then I went and did a bit of reading up, about gearing your companion, what level to be and so forth, after making some changes it went much better. I then got my healing companion, and used him, but suddenly everyting went slower. Playing double dps was actually great, you kill mobs so fast that you dont spend time healing as much.

 

When i started my assasin, I planned ahead on what i want to do. I decided to go darkness, and let Khem dps, but still leave his taunt on auto cast. This caused us both to take some dmg. Causing our health to both be in lets say the 80% area. Now i read somewhere something about regen (both on health and energy), it regens faster the higher it is. So if you and your companion has 80% hp at the end of the fight, the hp regen rate will be faster than if you were lets say on 40% and he is on 100%. And on 80% you dont need to heal up between fights, because the hp regen rate is so high, that by the time you get to your next group, you will either be on 90% or 100%.

 

I must add that the damage output for assasin tank was higher for me than what the damage output was on my sith warrior tank...

 

I dont stealth... just run in and discharge! I kill everything i see (even elites), and I almost have no down time.

Also, killing everything in range, doing your space missions and doing bonus missions really help you to not go into area's at a lower level. And believe me, it really does make a difference.

 

Never take greens for quest rewards, take those commendations, and use it to buy better gear. Try to see you and your companion as ONE. if the gear upgrade benefit is better for your companion than for your char, then get the upgrade for them rather than for you.

 

Play darkness, be one or 2 levels higher than the mob your facing, let Khem go dps stance but allow him to taunt, do your space missions (they are quite fun), and trust me, you will level faster than expected, you will have fun doing so, you can enjoy the leveling experience much more, you get groups easier as a tank (and trust me its not difficult), and you can stealth/vanish if needed. Seriously, all we need is charge and this is really the ultimate class.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Harmsed

[Kumakichi]

After 31 lvls of Khem Val I needed a change. Im mowing stuff over with Ashara. I do have to seethe once in awhile but i was doing it just as much with Khem.

 

I found Assassin one of the easiest classes to level and i have tried almost all of them. And Ive solo'd elite stuff id never be able to do on another class. If you find assassin leveling slow then your doing something wrong.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Kumakichi

[Jarlhen]

Darkness assassins do great damage for leveling purposes. It's so much smoother than the other two specs in my opinion. Also, considering a stage bonus quests equal about the same XP as 4-5 regular quests and you do them in the same area you're already at, it'd take an idiot to ignore them. They stand for a significant boost in XP per hour.

[Stigas]

Darkness assassins do great damage for leveling purposes. It's so much smoother than the other two specs in my opinion. Also, considering a stage bonus quests equal about the same XP as 4-5 regular quests and you do them in the same area you're already at, it'd take an idiot to ignore them. They stand for a significant boost in XP per hour.

 

This guy gets it.

 

Although, I just don't like tanking in this game, so I've found myself enjoying Deception and Madness and just running Dark Charge for survivability (Talos as comp).

[Sabbathius]

I'm just going to cover all of the above in one stroke.

 

The guy who said warriors are harder to level, I have a Marauder almost as high as my Sin (I think 2 levels lower, at most), and I'm currently bringing up my Juggernaut. I'm past 20s on Mara, still in 20s on Jugg (25-26 I think).

 

They're piss-easy to level because Quinn is an absolute beast. If you are dying, you're doing something horribly wrong. Yeah, you can't take 3-4 elites at once like Sorcerer because you don't have the CC for it, but the regular questing is a snooze-fest. And pre-Quinn, Vette is a beast too. I would argue she is the highest DPS low-level companion. She definitely wrecks Khem in a DPS race, even if you put him in DPS stance, and gets AoE early.

 

For me so far, warriors have been 3rd easiest to level. Fist is Sorcerer, for obvious reasons. Second is Bounty Hunters, Merc being considerably easier because he gets a full 1 min CC at 22, while Powertech doesn't begin to click until 27 but still doesn't even come close to measuring up to a Merc in DPS or CC. And warriors come third.

 

That's not to say Operative was bad to level, it's just having to heal Kaliyo and having to manage energy and tactical advantage is a pain, much more work. But at least Operative has heals, and CC on par with Sins - arguably better (8 sec AoE blind), allowing him to solo stuff that Sin will struggle with.

 

About bonus portions of quests - I don't know about 4-5x XP than the quest is worth. I remember precisely when I started skipping some bonuses. That quest on Tatooine, killing sand people. I was to kill 40, and reward for it was 4k XP. Yeah, I got a ton of XP from killing, and I got 4k for bonus. But that was a grind, plain and simple. And yes, grinding is fastest form of leveling still. But it's boring as all hell. And when you are playing a class without decent AoE, like a Sin or Operative, and most pulls are 3+ enemies, grinding just isn't worth it. But that's just my opinion. On AoE heavy classes like BH I always did the grinding quests, but that's because abilities like flamethrower and Horrible Fiery Death From Above make it stupidly easy to take out whole packs in seconds, statistically DFA is up every 2nd-3rd pull, depending on your level, it speeds up leveling like crazy.

 

But hey, all of the above it's just me talking out of my hiney.

 

EDIT: Forgot about the damage comparison. Sith Warrior tank (Jugg) specced into tanking indeed has low-ish damage, especially at lower levels. But at 30+ it pays off with dividends when you get stun, choke without channeling and medium damage shield every time you scream (which is free after every charge, and knocback/down resets charge CD).

 

But take a Jugg to 30 as DPS spec, I personally did it with Vengeance, and it rips through mobs much faster than a Sin possibly can. In my experience anyway. And it's way tankier (due to heavy armor) than a non-Darkness spec Sin. Plus even Vengeance tree has some extra tank to it, like 20% reduction for 4 seconds after you charge. That's pretty huge, as in those 4 seconds you are killing off as many weak opponents as you can, and Smash is already pretty beastly. I can definitely compare Jugg in Vengeance spec to Sin in overall tankiness. Slightly less, but damage is way more, and much of it is AoE.

 

Also, considering a stage bonus quests equal about the same XP as 4-5 regular quests

 

Just for giggles, logged on my Sniper and did a quest (the one where you get a plant or seed from upside-down-face guys on Nar Shaddaa):

Normal kill - 164 XP

Strong kill - 328 XP

Elite kill - (not required) 1225 XP

Stage Bonus - Kill 35 enemies - 2485 XP

Quest Bonus - Loot 3 holos (doable in stealth) - 3245 XP

Quest Complete - 6485 XP

 

In other words, you can kill 35 guys, at 164-328 XP a pop. You can also kill a few elites at 1225 XP a pop. In fact, I'd say killing elites is more XP/hr than questing or killing normals. Doing it all, including travel, took about 25 mins.

 

In that time I got approx

26 x Normal at 164 = 4264

8 x Strong at 328 = 2624

1x Elite (as a test of XP) = 1225

_____________________________

Total from kills: 8113 XP

Stage Bonus for 35 kills - 2485 XP

_____________________________

Total: 10,598 XP

Quest bonus for looting holos - 3245 XP

Quest complete bonus 6485 XP

_____________________________

Grand Total: 20,328 XP

Time: approx 25 mins

_____________________________

XP per Minute: 813 XP

 

Or you can stealth in, grab 3 holos, get 3245 XP for that. Talk to the NPC for quest item, and return to quest giver and get 6485 XP. Your total? 9730 XP in under 5 mins including travel, with zero kills.

XP per Minute? 1946

 

See my point? I don't know which quests give 4-5x more in stage bonuses, but the bulk of XP comes from kills. And kills take time.

 

If you want to call me on my timing, I'll admit mobs in that area are pretty far spaced. And I was playing a sniper - first mob dies instantly, the rest take a while. Still, look at the numbers: 20k XP for the whole thing, including 35 kills. Or 10k XP for zero kills. All else and killing speed aside, which do you think is better XP per minute? I'd say stealth way is way better.

 

Now i read somewhere something about regen (both on health and energy), it regens faster the higher it is.

 

That is only true for some classes, and not true for Assassins.

Force pool for Inquisitors regenerates linearly. Whether you have 1% or 99%. Same speed.

 

Non-linear regeneration is on Bounty Hunters and Imperial Agents. You can tell because they have a little arrow indicator to the right of their resource bar. Then the bar is showing full >>>>>, their regen is fastest, and when it shows less, it's slower. For BH, resource is heat - they more they have, the slower it cools, and once overheated they can't use their abilities until they cool off. For IAs it's energy, but it's non-linear unlike Inquisitor force. The more they have, the faster it regens.

 

And obviously Warriors have rage, which doesn't regenerate or decay in combat at all. You build it, passively or actively, and actively spend it. Regen rate doesn't factor into it at all.

 

As for health, as far as I know it's linear regen for everyone, and seems to be tied to your health pool size. In other words, it's a percentage of your health regenerating every second. So Endurance affects your health and your health regen rate. And obviously there's no health regen in combat, outside of abilities.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Sabbathius