silktor Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) Sorry for the meme.. but. Well I posted a while back with a wee little moan about lacerate and how I feel it's just utterly pointless. Seems many agreed, 40 force for 300ish damage. At level 40. Well I'm 42 now, and just got Spike. Oh my word! Is it broken? Or is a from stealth only attack supposed to do.. 200. Yes, 200, damage at level 42!? Well I suppose there's the wickedly sick 2 second knockdown as well! But don't we have a GCD of approx 1.5 secs which more or less negates that? Might as well open with an attack that actually does damage instead? What am I missing? What's with these silly abilities that seem broken? Surely they're not scaling or something? Anyway the good news is my 'sin tank is actually doing well now I have proper defense gear and am making full use of all my AE attacks. But I do wonder what they were thinking with some of our abilities. On one hand yuo have the operative doing so much damage from his stealth attack he gets his with the nerf bat hard, nary a month after launch, and the other hand, we 'sins have an attack that does so little damage I'd imagine nobody actually uses it. Edited January 31, 2012 by silktor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestrodomus Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 It's used as: 1) An interrupt 2) To knock people or mobs off ledges 3) Out of stealth to startle people Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silktor Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) 1, It's from stealth only, so that is illogical! 2, It's from stealth only so that would be situational at best. 3, Because going up to players and shouting "BOO" is how we win pvp Edited January 31, 2012 by silktor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tezeech Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 if you spec darkness you can use it out of stealth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabbathius Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Spike is intended for Darkness spec Assassins. Usable out of stealth, it is an interrupt, clutch CC or cheese (knock them face-first into a pool of acid after Force Pull). Just like Crushing Darkness is for Assassins that spec Madness (up to Raze at least). Otherwise 2 second cast makes it impractical to use. Let's face it, making certain spells only useful for certain specs is the only way to prevent this class from requiring 60+ keybinds to play properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuyuske Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Spike is intended for Darkness spec Assassins. Usable out of stealth, it is an interrupt, clutch CC or cheese (knock them face-first into a pool of acid after Force Pull). Just like Crushing Darkness is for Assassins that spec Madness (up to Raze at least). Otherwise 2 second cast makes it impractical to use. Let's face it, making certain spells only useful for certain specs is the only way to prevent this class from requiring 60+ keybinds to play properly. More or less this. I use it in Darkness spec on...well, not a very regular basis, but enough that it warrants a place on my hotbar. When I was running as Madness, though, it never got touched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silktor Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 Spike is intended for Darkness spec Assassins. Usable out of stealth, it is an interrupt, clutch CC or cheese (knock them face-first into a pool of acid after Force Pull). Just like Crushing Darkness is for Assassins that spec Madness (up to Raze at least). Otherwise 2 second cast makes it impractical to use. Let's face it, making certain spells only useful for certain specs is the only way to prevent this class from requiring 60+ keybinds to play properly. I can live with that, just wish I didn't learn them in the first place if they're of no use. Or that they were greyed out or something, so that I could be sure "I really have no use for this". As it is now I already have way too many abilities anyway. Also, I really wish I had at least one powerful from stealth ability (even if it did lower damage in tank stance, which it would anyway). Otherwise stealth feels kinda pointless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silktor Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 Also re: interrupt, why not just use jolt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeppTB Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Also re: interrupt, why not just use jolt? Jolt has a cooldown. So if you absolutely have to interrupt something, and already just interrupted something, and your big stun is down as well, you now have a second(/third) option! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestrodomus Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) 1, It's from stealth only, so that is illogical! 2, It's from stealth only so that would be situational at best. 3, Because going up to players and shouting "BOO" is how we win pvp 1) Not for Darkness 2) Same 3) Read before you complain next time Oh and obviously Jolt and Spike do not share the same cooldown. Hence, refer back to point #3 from above. Edited January 31, 2012 by Maestrodomus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KianTremayne Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I can live with that, just wish I didn't learn them in the first place if they're of no use. Or that they were greyed out or something, so that I could be sure "I really have no use for this". It's not 'of no use'. It is of situational use - meaning, you don't ALWAYS use it, but there are times that you will want to. But no, if you're expecting a 'LOL stunlock' style of play attacking out of stealth, then Spike isn't the ability you're looking for /jedimindtrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hikotai Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I know this goes beyond the capacity of most people's thought processes, but try to bear with me. A 2 second knockdown lasts about 3-4 seconds in reality. Probably around 3.5 or so. "But Hiko, that makes no sense!!!111" Let me explain. When you knock a person down, they have to actually fall. Believe it or not, this animaton does, in fact, consume time. Somewhere between 0.5 and 1 second. They must then remain on the ground for 2 seconds. Lastly, they have to actually complete the "standing up" animation, before they can act again. This lasts about a second. The total time they're rendered helpless is therefore at least 3 seconds, even if we ignore the "fall down" time, and becomes 3.5 - 4 seconds if we count it. The GCD only takes 1.5 seconds of your time. The math looks a lot more favorable now, doesn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitlz Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Also re: interrupt, why not just use jolt? Their is nothing more satisfying in voidstar to be a tank and only one at a door with 3 ppl, and Electrocute <tab> Instant Whirlwind <Tab> Spike then wait and Knockback. Holding off the door for a few mroe seconds to get more teamates to help defend. 23/0/18 spec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitlz Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Their is nothing more satisfying in voidstar to be a tank and only one at a door with 3 ppl, and Electrocute <tab> Instant Whirlwind <Tab> Spike then wait and Knockback. Holding off the door for a few mroe seconds to get more teamates to help defend. 23/0/18 spec. This is what distinquishes good pvp tanks from bad ones. Controlling the fight and limiting the dmg of the oposing team is how you win. Every second a person is down is an instant cast move they cant doo. and as a sith assassin tank you have 3 CC's that you can use 2 of which are long range and the one guy beating on you, you can knock on his ***** with no problem at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windkull Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 How can you be darkness spec and not use spike? how do you kill healers in PVP? I use spike all the time when I spec darkness, and actually its part of the rotation for deception too. Its a free hit out of stealth because you can follow up with anything else, so its a chance for a charge to build up to make your discharge hit all that much harder... Darkness fights are generally thrash/shock to 3 stacks of harnessed darkness while keeping wither on the target, then relic/reckless, force lightning + shock. This should bring them to assassinate range. The shock can hit over 4k, assassinate over 3k, and force lightning can go well over 1000 per tick. Deception you want to find someone solo and spike => VS => VS => Low Slash => relic/reckless/adrenal => discharge => shock (or shock first if you have 4 piece pvp) => blackout => electrocute => maul (if proc)/VS + VS => assassinate => shock/maul. The shocks, discharge, maul and assassinate can all hit over 4k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainEvers Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I didn't use spike until well into 50.. Now I can't live without it.. You know whats so great about Spike in PVP with Darkness spec, the low amount of resolve it gives your opponent for the 3+ second stun.. If more people were mindful of how much resolve their CC gave opponents, Huttball would be so much more pleasant.. Pull > Spike > Electrocute all before full resolve.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightdealer Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Their is nothing more satisfying in voidstar to be a tank and only one at a door with 3 ppl, and Electrocute <tab> Instant Whirlwind <Tab> Spike then wait and Knockback. Holding off the door for a few mroe seconds to get more teamates to help defend. 23/0/18 spec. This is what I am exactly looking to build. A 23/0/18. Is there a skill tree link to show what to spec into what not to? Can't find it anywhere. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeppTB Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 There's a link in the darkness tanking sticky in the assassin forum to the 23/0/18 spec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobsy Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 There's just enough time in the two second knockdown stun to use Tumult and kick them in the chops. Perhaps not the most efficient opener but it does damage and it looks awesome, so I use it pretty regularly. Obviously not on elites, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marfoir Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Perhaps not the most efficient opener but it does damage and it looks awesome, so I use it pretty regularly. That. Spike and tummult are both for looking cool while you take out the first normal mob in a pack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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