Madness is now the PvP spec

[OysterCatcherr]

Quick queston to TC and others having success using this spec.

 

Are you using adrenals to rack up those kinds of figures to start off with? Also, given the DoT nature of Madness, would it not be more sensible to drop the two points from lightning recovery into Insulation, to make you that bit less squishy?

 

TY and great to see Madness doing so well now, as it is the spec I have stuck with since starting the game when it came out!

[Gavonau]

I'm curious. If you wouldn't use Maul nearly enough to make the talent worth it, then I'm trying to think of where those 3 points would be best utilized whether it be towards something defensive or perhaps Electric Execution.

[Nocorras]

I'm curious. If you wouldn't use Maul nearly enough to make the talent worth it, then I'm trying to think of where those 3 points would be best utilized whether it be towards something defensive or perhaps Electric Execution.

 

There isn't much to choose from, it's preference really. I don't think electric execution is worth it over duplicity though.

[StrifedRevan]

note to all those thinking of using this, its not a very good 1v1 spec against other geared players, you can melt faces of those that aren't as geared as you, they will just completely melt lol.

 

go against a veteran BM marauder or deception assassin, they will completely nuke your *** down. first of all , you can't just use this spec right off the bat and expect to pull great numbers, if you want to use this spec in PVP, you have to utilize recklessness timely with your deathfield because it will be the source of your burst damage (critting with deathfield hits for up to 4k+ on multiple targets)

 

I'm a full battlemaster assassin, and have neglected accuracy entirely and replaced all of its mods with surge/crit enhancements, so I'm sitting at 88% surge 33% crit, but back to the tree, I use 8/2/31 build, forget about any of the survivability talents (dmg reduction etc) because these will not save you 1on1 against geared players that know what theyre doing or against 2-3 random bh's burying you with tracer missiles, so just go for pure dps madness tree.

 

Its your chocie whether to put 1 or 2 points into the talent that procs exploit weakness, your mauls will crit 5k with that procd every blue moon(very rarely) but most of the time it will hit for around 2-3k, so I'd say put 2 points into either the talent that reduces cooldown of force shroud/speed or the one that increases lightsaber charge damage.

 

Again this tree isn't a great 1v1 spec, its a great AOE/dot damage dealing spec, I've been pulling outstanding numbers in overall damage, but have failed to strike fear into those that challenge me 1on1 like how I use to as deception.

[Aeroblazed]

what type of offhand do you use? what stats are prioritized with your build?

[MacbethAUT]

I'm at level 41 so far and 31/0/10 for pvp and pve. I really love my build with all the tools it gives me and I wonder how this madness build of yours work in pve? Is it as good as it seems in pve too?

[Gavonau]

I haven't had a huge problem 1v1 so far. There have been a few instances where in an Op gets the jump on me then I'm pretty much screwed if he's in BM gear. Other than that I've been alright and I don't even have my dps set completed yet (switching from full T2 Darkness). I do agree though that our best utility is dotting players to prevent them from capping a point and AOE'ing large groups along with interrupting heals and such. Regardless, it's still a very viable spec. You just need to be geared and be aware of the procs. I'll probably play with Deception a bit too though once I get into BM.

[Deridia]

Huge increase to healing!

 

Go into a warzone, death field, than tab target lightning discharges for 2% health every crit =) Notice his 90k healing

 

his 90k healing is because he's abusing shock frozen water.

[Epicopter]

I tried Madness and while I did a ton of damage in Warzones I didn't feel like the damage was very effective and it doesn't have anywhere near the utility of a Darkness assassin.

[Tiam]

How is this spec 1vs1? I have a LOT of 1vs1 fights. I can take a very low level Merc into wz's and get 200K+ damage easy. I don't care how many people we can land some dps on. How is the spec 1vs1?

[drummerinthesun]

Can we get a rotation in this thread? Or is it just the standard rotation? I'm getting a little bored with Deception, is this playstyle a ton different, or will I transition pretty smoothly if I make the switch?

[mahoba]

OK for those of you just realizing this spec is viable you aren't very goo imo. I played madness pre patch and ***** with it. I go 200k+ damage on pre 50 WZ and thats without the most recent patch. Also lightning charge and its discharge is not worth it at all. Creeping terror is the only dot you need for the heals, and no one can run from you. I top damage all the time with dark charge, and i play burst/steady damage madness. So deathfield/creeping terror/shock/thrash rotation is best for high damage output with average healing. I can 1v1 anyone and i can chase down anyone, also the mitigation is great.

[mahoba]

note to all those thinking of using this, its not a very good 1v1 spec against other geared players, you can melt faces of those that aren't as geared as you, they will just completely melt lol.

 

go against a veteran BM marauder or deception assassin, they will completely nuke your *** down. .

 

This is a joke right? a marauder will eat **** just kite him with force lightning and creeping terror he wont ever touch you, and same with deception assasin just kite.... its easy as hell just because they out dps you doesnt mean they will in a 1v1. *******

[mahoba]

Can we get a rotation in this thread? Or is it just the standard rotation? I'm getting a little bored with Deception, is this playstyle a ton different, or will I transition pretty smoothly if I make the switch?

 

very different....but you will drool at how much your survivability goes up and how well you maintain your damage from the transtition. Give it a try!

[Gavonau]

OK for those of you just realizing this spec is viable you aren't very goo imo. I played madness pre patch and ***** with it. I go 200k+ damage on pre 50 WZ and thats without the most recent patch. Also lightning charge and its discharge is not worth it at all. Creeping terror is the only dot you need for the heals, and no one can run from you. I top damage all the time with dark charge, and i play burst/steady damage madness. So deathfield/creeping terror/shock/thrash rotation is best for high damage output with average healing. I can 1v1 anyone and i can chase down anyone, also the mitigation is great.

 

I knew Madness had potential because I used it for leveling and the occasional WZ while doing so. As soon as I hit 50 I switched to Darkness and haven't thought about going DPS until I got bored with it just recently. I still plan on trying Deception eventually to see how that goes.

 

As for 1v1 it's very viable, but until we get arenas, it can be tough to find a true 1v1 situation as people like to be opportunistic and jump in on people when they see their health low. If I don't have someone AOE'ing me during my 1v1 skirmishes or someone healing the other person, I'm fine in 1v1. Ops are the only class I truly have a challenge against in that regard.

 

For rotation, I've just been placing lightning charge and creeping terror on the opponent, using thrash to get my buff and hopefully raze then toss my last dot on and death field where applicable. Don't forget to use recklessness and trinks/pots with death field as well. Then Maul when it procs as well.

[Gavonau]

I'll also say as someone switching from Darkness to Madness, you'll notice you've become A LOT more squishy in comparison, but as long as you place your dots on enough people and use deathfield and procs appropriately you'll be fine. I do miss Force Pull though quite a bit. Otherwise I'm completely satisfied with my switch to dps.

[yynderjohn]

very different....but you will drool at how much your survivability goes up and how well you maintain your damage from the transtition. Give it a try!

Can you post your gear (is stalker best or maybe add some force user pieces), what secondary stats/adrenals do you pop? And your build?

[AlphaBraddox]

I havent had a chance to play since patch but players that switched to Madness spec how are you doing in PVP since the change? Edited February 8, 2012 by AlphaBraddox

[tonpu]

Switched from Deception to Madness. Found that without a pre-made the massive damage numbers does not translate to effective damage. The damage that I do usually gets healed. Whereas as deception I could lockdown or kill a healer within 3-4 gcds, and that ends up being more effective than dotting and spamming aoes. My damage per killing blow has gone up drastically, which imo is less efficient. My findings are strictly in solo queues if that gives any insight to play styles without typing out another paragraph.

 

- Switching back to deception, putting up massive numbers is fun, but it does not translate into effective teamplay or wins. YMMV

Edited February 8, 2012 by tonpu

[Astarica]

Switched from Deception to Madness. Found that without a pre-made the massive damage numbers does not translate to effective damage. The damage that I do usually gets healed. Whereas as deception I could lockdown or kill a healer within 3-4 gcds, and that ends up being more effective than dotting and spamming aoes. My damage per killing blow has gone up drastically, which imo is less efficient. My findings are strictly in solo queues if that gives any insight to play styles without typing out another paragraph.

 

- Switching back to deception, putting up massive numbers is fun, but it does not translate into effective teamplay or wins. YMMV

 

Unless you're a Merc, and possibly an Op, you're either good at doing damage or you're good at killing people, but not both. Assassins generally tend to be stronger at killing people than doing damage in all specs. Without a strong coordinated team, the ability to kill people is generally much better than the ability to do damage. In a strong team, if you already got enough killing specialists you can concentrate on just doing damage since all that damage will let your killing specialists get to work sooner. Still, Assassins are one of the best killing specialists too. It makes more sense to let the damage dealing go to classes like Merc/Sorcs while Assassins/Ops focus on the killing part, so I think it's backwards to swap roles with the two classes that are generally much better at doing damage but not necessarily as good at killing people.

[Jontar]

As someone said to me, padding your stats with the Shockfrozen water heal medals is nothing to brag about.

 

DoT spec always pads your stats, actual contriibution to PvP is usually quite low.

 

quoted for the truth. Use it to your hearts content I do but dont brag when you truly only had 9 medals.

[darkenwolf]

Unless you're a Merc, and possibly an Op, you're either good at doing damage or you're good at killing people, but not both. Assassins generally tend to be stronger at killing people than doing damage in all specs. Without a strong coordinated team, the ability to kill people is generally much better than the ability to do damage. In a strong team, if you already got enough killing specialists you can concentrate on just doing damage since all that damage will let your killing specialists get to work sooner. Still, Assassins are one of the best killing specialists too. It makes more sense to let the damage dealing go to classes like Merc/Sorcs while Assassins/Ops focus on the killing part, so I think it's backwards to swap roles with the two classes that are generally much better at doing damage but not necessarily as good at killing people.

 

I was actually just thinking about this dichotomy the other day, so naturally I think this is a fantastic observation. Spot on, IMO.

[Fujah]

I was actually just thinking about this dichotomy the other day, so naturally I think this is a fantastic observation. Spot on, IMO.

 

I have to agree as well. I usually don't do more than 100-125k damage in a WZ, probably even low as a Deception Assassin but new 50 so no gear, yet. And sometimes I only do 50-60k but I feel I had a better game because I'm preventing a cap or killing the right player.

 

When I get a huge amount of damage, for me, it usually means I sucked.

[Astarica]

I was actually just thinking about this dichotomy the other day, so naturally I think this is a fantastic observation. Spot on, IMO.

 

Well I've been rolling a merc alt, who I think is the most powerful class right now since they can do it all. But they're actually not a killing specialist. You have only one stun, and no interupts. Say I get you to 30%, and you start popping cooldowns and heals on yourself. What can I do? Shoot more Tracer Missiles. As powerful as Mercs are, they're not someone you need to especially fear as your health drops. Their killing power is mostly just from the fact that most of their attacks seems to do way more damage than other class's equivalent, so while they've no real burst or control abilities, they can still kill you by using their normal rotation.

 

On the other hand you should definitely fear an Assassin as your health gets close to 30% since they've a lot of ways to drop that last 30% in a hurry and make sure your heals fail. As a merc, I just shoot more missiles to overpower your CDs/heals. As an Assassin, I got a lot of ways to make your heals never happen.

[Karandor]

Throwing DoTs on every person in range is so incredibly stupid that it boggles my mind that people still think this is a good way to PvP.

 

There is a lot of CC in this game that breaks on damage. Throwing a dot on a person didn't really do much damage but certainly made them immune to Whirlwind, flash grenade and any other breakable CC for 18s.

 

Specs like this are the reason that capping in voidstar and alderaan can be such a pain. Stop giving the entire enemy team CC immunity with your goddamn DoTs. Focus a target and kill it. Sure they're good for defense but on offense it's a pain.

 

This is matter cabalists from DAoC all over again.