Balance by Jurugar

[Jurugar]

There’s been a recent surge of attention for the shadow balance spec, and since I practically invented the spec I’ve decided to write up a lil guide for all yall “ghetto sages” in the making.

Table of Contents:

Prologue - Who is Jurugar?

1) Pros/Cons

2) Spec and Gear

3) Important Abilities

4) Ability Priority

5) General Tips about Balance

6) FAQ

 

 

Prologue - Who is Jurugar?

Scholars have been attempting to answer this question for many years. Some say he's good. Others say he's really good. Some say he's okay. Others say he's really okay.

 

Credentials:

-been playing Balance since early January

-member of Nerf Dialogue, one of the top raiding guilds that peaked at US #1 on the "hard stuff"

-is better than you as a player and a person

 

And that's that.

 

1) Pros and Cons

If you're wondering what a balance shadow is, it's one that uses that 3rd talent tree that isnt kinetic or infiltration. Here's some of what it offers compared to the other two:

 

Pros:

-more CC/utility, including a root

-longer range (2 moves with 30m range, several with 10m)

-higher sustained damage

-less force starved

-dots

-better damage in group environments

-moderate self healing

 

As balance, you get more moves that let you skirt on the edge of melee combat rather than dive right in like a knight would. You have instant cast force lift for more control, a 30m range root for, well, a million different things (catching up, kiting, running away, positioning, etc), and "fire and forget" damage in the form of dots.

 

But, as with all good things (the obvious exception being Jurugar), there are some downsides too:

 

Cons:

-hardest to master

-more difficult to 1v1

-less burst than infiltration

-less survivability than kinetic

-longer downtime of defensive CDs

-somewhat proc reliant

-less AOE than kinetic (but more than infiltration)

 

In general, playing balance feels the least like one would expect from playing a shadow. You lack the burst of infiltration or the survivability of kinetic, and as a result 1v1ing can become more difficult.

 

2) Spec and Gear

 

With specs, there's very little variation with the main 31 points. Preferences come more into play when you decide your remaining 10.

 

0/10/31

(This is the spec I use)

 

-~5% reduction in kinetic/energy dmg

-3 stealth levels

-15% movement speed

-2s reduction for mind snap

-30s reduction for force of will

 

7/3/31

-6% dmg to double strike

-3% crit

-10 seconds off force speed

-15 seconds off resilience

 

It really depends on how you want to play. I like having the passive movement speed buff and the reduction on kick/trinket, but if you want a bit more damage and shorter CDs you can go the 2nd route.

 

As for gear, it's pretty self explanatory. I like to keep my crit at around 28-29% self buffed, but that's just preference. Crit scales comparatively well with balance because of the built in surge to dots/force in balance/double strike, as well as the fact that dot crits heal you for 2% of your hp. I'm currently using a rakata MH with an expertise crystal and power enhancements, so I dont have to worry about the ****-ton of crit on the BM MH. Contrary to a lot of info out there, I'm not going to tell you to ignore accuracy. Get at least 5-6%, and dont blindly stack surge way past the DR just to avoid it - I think I've got about 98% accuracy. You dont have to go full BM if you dont want to, though I would still work towards getting a full set for when 1.2 reworks the expertise DR.

 

In the end, power is the way to go, but dont ignore the other stats.

 

 

3) Important Abilities

 

A lot of this should be self explanatory; some of it will not be. Stick close and pay attention.

 

Double Strike (no CD, 22 force) - Your go-to move if you cant do anything better. Does decent damage, especially with the bonus 50% surge. Don't underestimate it.

 

Project (6s CD, 39 force, 10m) - One of the toughest things about switching to balance is retraining yourself to not use project every time it's up. It's your most force-thirsty move by far and doesnt do enough damage to warrant usage other than to proc twin disciplines every 20 seconds for the bonus 10% melee power.

 

Force in Balance (15s CD, 25 force, 30m) - Probably the most important move to a balance shadow. 30m range, internal damage, hits up to 3 targets, and applies force suppression, which gives your next 10 dot ticks on the target 20% extra damage as well as refunding 2 force per tick. It is a manually-cast ground target aoe that takes practice to master - both in hitting several spaced targets at once and in not wasting uptime by trying to aim it.

 

Force Breach (no CD, 20 force, 10m) - This is no longer a single target nuke, nor is it an aoe with a debuff. Force breach is now a DOT that deals high kinetic damage and has no CD, meaning you can apply it to multiple enemies in succession. As I said, it's a dot; dont spam it on a single target.

 

Shadow Strike (proc, 25 force) - One of your hardest nukes. As a balance shadow you'll end up using this a lot, as you'll have the extra force for it and you wont be locked in the CV-CV-project infiltration cycle. It does heavy single target damage and ignores 50% of your target's armor. It also requires you to not be facing your target; you can shadow strike from behind or to one side.

 

Sever Force (9s CD, 20 force, 30m)- Internal damage DOT that also snares for 2 seconds. You'll likely end up spamming this even though it'll waste dmg because the snare is unaffected by resolve. Has a thousand uses.

 

Mind Crush (proc, 0 force, 10m) - A moderate-dmg kinetic instant spell that also leaves a short but powerful dot. One of your harder hitting moves, and it's free!

 

Spinning Strike (6s CD, 25 force) - Usable on targets at or below 30% hp (though sometimes it wont activate if it's exactly 30%). Hardest hitting move that should be used whenever possible, as often as possible.

 

Force Lift (1minute CD, 20 force, 30m) - Instant cast incapacitate that lasts for 8 seconds. Great for 2v2s, 1v2s, capping nodes, forcing trinkets, CCing healers...If it breaks early from damage then it adds an additional 2s stun, which is both nice and annoying - it's extra CC, but the stun will cap their resolve if it goes off.

 

The rest of the moves you can figure out yourself; however, I will stop and comment on Telekinetic Throw. In short: use sparingly, if at all.

 

It doesnt benefit from twin disciplines, eats 2 GCDs, requires you to be stationary, can be interrupted, doesnt have bonus surge, and costs 30 force. If you're being kited, you dont want to stand still for 3 seconds. If you're kiting, you dont want to stand still for 3 seconds. Really the only time you should consider using TK throw is if you have leftover charge(s) on your force potency and force in balance isn't up, and you arent being targetted to be stunned/interrupted. Otherwise, it only does a little more dmg than a double strike/auto attack combo, costs more force, and has fewer chances to proc force technique and shadow strike, as well as the complete inability to proc mind crush.

 

 

4) Ability Priority

 

A loose priority chart is as follows:

1. Spinning Strike (target at 30% or less)

2. Force in Balance

3. Shadow Strike (proc only)

4. Mind Crush (proc only)

5. Project (dots not expiring, twin disciplines off)

6. Sever Force (dot not on target)

7. Force Breach (dot not on target)

8. Double Strike

9. Saber Strike

 

 

5) General Tips about Balance

 

-DONT use project on CD

I already mentioned this before, but as balance, project is more of a liability than an asset. Only use it to reapply the twin disciplines buff

 

-dont spam force breach

See above

 

-dont be afraid to let twin disciplines fall off

Twin disciplines only buffs your melee bonus damage. If it's about to fall off and you have to do more important things, like use force in balance, refresh your dots or use a mind crush proc, there's no point to casting project before using those abilities if they wont benefit from it anyway. Instead, you'd just be shortening the effective buff uptime. Similarly, if you can use spinning strike, dont delay using it just to reapply twin disciplines

 

-it's ok to refresh sever force for the root

As I said earlier, a 2s root on a 9s CD is often worth wasting force/dmg on a non-full duration sever force

 

-watch your mind crush proc

It'll happen pretty much on internal CD (7.5 seconds), so plan accordingly. For example, if the buff is half gone, use it before using another melee ability, or else it'll refresh itself instead of granting you 2 back to back mind crush usages (which I wouldnt advise, since it would waste the dot)

 

-when it comes to force in balance, a bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush

AKA make sure you always hit at least one target with it, instead of trying to split the difference between 2 and missing entirely. It's a cornerstone of your damage/force regen and you cant afford to miss

 

-dont dot a target that's about to die

Waste of force and possibly a CD

 

-use LOS to your advantage

You have DOTs now - you dont need to have 100% uptime to do 100% damage. While you're not doing a lot of damage while pillar humping in voidstar, you're still doing more than the guy who's chasing you - 0.

 

-you can kite moderately well should you need to

Against heavy melee like sentinels and powertechs, dont be afraid to skirt at the 10m range to whittle them down. You're not going to be able to stand toe to toe with them if they know what they're doing, so make full use of your tools. Combine sever force, force slow, force speed and 15% increased movement speed (if you used my spec) and you can see why I call the spec the "ghetto sage"

 

-sever force and force in balance dont require facing

You can cast those two abilities without having to face your target, which is great for when you're trying to run away/towards an objective/somewhere else and want to use sever force. Force in balance is tougher to use because you still have to aim the reticule (which your camera wont let you do if you're moving), but you can still do it if you're standing still and want to hit someone behind you/want to look cool

 

6) FAQ

 

Why pick shadowy veil over shadow's respite?

As balance, you are not as force starved as you are in infiltration. That extra 24 force when you start a fight isn't as good as 30% increased armor.

 

Why not pick up expertise in the kinetic tree? 9% more damage to force breach?

That talent only increases the damage of force technique, not force technique's force breach (or any technique's force breach for that matter).

 

Why cant I beat class X? I could always beat class X as infiltration/kinetic.

As I said earlier, balance is not as good in 1v1s as the other two specs. And kinetic is OP, go away.

 

Have you ever tried x/x/(<31)?

No. Get sever force.

 

How do you perform the famous "Jurugar's Gamble" to capture a point?

It's pretty simple. If there's a tank, healer or anyone who wont die quickly enough solo defending a node, mind maze them, then fake like you're capping the point (you shouldnt be able to cap it in time, since mind maze lasts 8 seconds but it takes a GCD to unstealth before you can interact with the node). If they're dumb, they'll trinket your sap, at which point you simultaneously use force lift while interacting with the node to guarantee a cap. Note: this only works against idiots.

 

What's your highest damage game?

So far it's 705k, though I stopped trying for big numbers a long time ago - whenever my team is not in danger of losing, I mostly play iPod games and guard the door/node

 

 

If you found this useful, dont forget to share it with other would-be balance shadows, and make sure to keep it bumped so I dont have to double-post more than twice a day.

[Anelyn]

Good write matey, thumbs up.

 

Personally I don't like Shadow Strike for balance, it breaks the pace of the spec forcing you more in melee range when you have the proc, and any slow / root / knockback / pull will further diminish the usage of ability.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Anelyn

[jbuschell]

You are my hero

[shagatha]

A very good guide. Your 7/3/31 spec is close what I've been using.

 

Mines is this 7/3/31. I don't care about twin diciplines or project when I play balance and I rarely use shadow strike but I still rather have proc for it than for twin diciplines.

Edited March 20, 2012 by shagatha

[Xinika]

Great guide Jurugar, bumping for more views.

[Jurugar]

Taking suggestions for Qs for me to A in the FAQ section, as long as you ask them F enough.

[OwnzYou]

In a group situation 2+ v 2+ should I be trying to DoT multiple people, or focus on using the rotation on a single target, then going to the next guy?

[Anelyn]

Taking suggestions for Qs for me to A in the FAQ section, as long as you ask them F enough.

 

Is it true that dark side shadows deal more damage than light sided ones because they are more powerful with the force and have cooler looking light saber crystals?

[shagatha]

Is it true that dark side shadows deal more damage than light sided ones because they are more powerful with the force and have cooler looking light saber crystals?

That my man is a valid question!

[Philosomanic]

In a group situation 2+ v 2+ should I be trying to DoT multiple people, or focus on using the rotation on a single target, then going to the next guy?

 

It depends on the groups. Typically, you want to throw down FiB, hit each person with Force Breach, and then focus on targets one by one. This gives you really, really high force regeneration for the next 18s, because you'll be getting 6 force every two seconds from Force Suppression charges being consumed. You'll also be getting sporadic heals from DoT crits, which will help keep you alive.

 

However, there are times when throwing DoTs around can change the course of a fight. If both sides have good heals and your team is having trouble killing the burst target, go into pressure mode. This means that you keep Force Breach up on every target within reach, you keep Sever Force up on two targets (healers are top priority, followed by burst target), and you use Mind Crush (with proc) as often as possible on a healer. When all your DoTs are up, melee on the healers if you can. Healers are the priority if you're applying pressure. If they're self-healing, their team is dying.

 

This will apply large amounts of pressure on the enemy healer. Rather than just having one target to worry about, their whole team is slowly bleeding to death. If they spread heals around, their focus target dies. If they heal the focus target, everyone else is at low health and vulnerable. They also have to worry about healing themselves, since they're taking pretty decent damage from your DoTs.

 

A good Balance Shadow can completely break a stalemate if you have a heal/tank-heavy fight. Your heavy, sustained, infinitely maintainable, widespread pressure DPS is just too hard to heal through long-term. Focusing on spreading DoTs isn't always worth it if it's a short fight, but they really stack up in a long fight.

[Anelyn]

It depends on the groups. Typically, you want to throw down FiB, hit each person with Force Breach, and then focus on targets one by one. This gives you really, really high force regeneration for the next 18s, because you'll be getting 6 force every two seconds from Force Suppression charges being consumed. You'll also be getting sporadic heals from DoT crits, which will help keep you alive.

 

However, there are times when throwing DoTs around can change the course of a fight. If both sides have good heals and your team is having trouble killing the burst target, go into pressure mode. This means that you keep Force Breach up on every target within reach, you keep Sever Force up on two targets (healers are top priority, followed by burst target), and you use Mind Crush (with proc) as often as possible on a healer. When all your DoTs are up, melee on the healers if you can. Healers are the priority if you're applying pressure. If they're self-healing, their team is dying.

 

This will apply large amounts of pressure on the enemy healer. Rather than just having one target to worry about, their whole team is slowly bleeding to death. If they spread heals around, their focus target dies. If they heal the focus target, everyone else is at low health and vulnerable. They also have to worry about healing themselves, since they're taking pretty decent damage from your DoTs.

 

A good Balance Shadow can completely break a stalemate if you have a heal/tank-heavy fight. Your heavy, sustained, infinitely maintainable, widespread pressure DPS is just too hard to heal through long-term. Focusing on spreading DoTs isn't always worth it if it's a short fight, but they really stack up in a long fight.

 

So true. And you can also assist with some burst on a distance target (ie: you're hampering a healer forcing him to heal himself, while one of their dps gets low, just FiB on him - or them as usually there is more than one - voilas pressure applied possible leading to a kill).

[Rafe_Vidar]

Using Project, even just to keep Twin Disciplines up, is a dps loss. Just some rummaging through sithwarrior forums will show you the math. The tie-up here is that it doesn't do enough damage to warrant the abuse of Force. Double Strike spam is superior to the Force hungry Project. Some devs really need to investigate this and either buff the dmg or reduce the force cost in order to make Balance spec users want to use project...

[Kai-Eurah-Tird]

Using Project, even just to keep Twin Disciplines up, is a dps loss. Just some rummaging through sithwarrior forums will show you the math. The tie-up here is that it doesn't do enough damage to warrant the abuse of Force. Double Strike spam is superior to the Force hungry Project. Some devs really need to investigate this and either buff the dmg or reduce the force cost in order to make Balance spec users want to use project...

 

Math from sithwarrior is not accurate as they do not have combat log data to back up their calculations.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Sireene
Inappropriate Content

[Xinika]

Math from sithwarrior is not accurate as they do not have combat log data to back up their calculations.

 

It's annoying how many people look to these guys like they're gods.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Sireene
quote of edited post

[Goukes]

Math from sithwarrior is not accurate as they do not have combat log data to back up their calculations.

 

It is accurate in this case though, and while they aren't gods, their conclusions are at least based on sound math for the most part, unlike the absolutisms some of the well known pvp'ers spread on these forums.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Sireene
quote of edited post

[Kai-Eurah-Tird]

It is accurate in this case though, and while they aren't gods, their conclusions are at least based on sound math for the most part, unlike the absolutisms some of the well known pvp'ers spread on these forums.

 

Sound math based on assumptions and guesses are still assumptions and guesses. "Building your houses on a foundation of sands" etc etc.

 

This is going off topic. Sorry OP.

 

Thanks for the advice on Balance builds. I played KC, switched to Balance, switched back to KC, and thought "KC is really boring. . . "

Edited March 21, 2012 by Kai-Eurah-Tird

[Goukes]

Sound math based on assumptions and guesses are still assumptions and guesses. "Building your houses on a foundation of sands" etc etc.

 

This is going off topic. Sorry OP.

 

Thanks for the advice on Balance builds. I played KC, switched to Balance, switched back to KC, and thought "KC is really boring. . . "

 

You know that you can actually see your damage done by each abilities without a combatlog, right? The values they use are taken from database or ingame tooltips, or by averaging damagevalues of tested abilities in game. Not all of the calculations on this site may use valid numbers(i personally didn't check a great majority of them for myself) but

this approach is far from "guesses and assumptions".

A Combatlog may help to make this theorycraft more precise, but it is 10 times more valuable than what a lot of people on theses forums "feel" to be right.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Goukes

[Kai-Eurah-Tird]

You know that you can actually see your damage done by each abilities without a combatlog, right? The values they use are taken from database or ingame tooltips, or by averaging damagevalues of tested abilities in game. Not all of the calculations on this site may use valid numbers(i personally didn't check a great majority of them for myself) but

this approach is far from "guesses and assumptions".

A Combatlog may help to make this theorycraft more precise, but it is 10 times more valuable than what a lot of people on theses forums "feel" to be right.

 

People should just take theorycrafting with a large dosage of salt, but they don't, that's troubling. They see someone who can do basic arithmetic and think it is sound? Show me math degrees, show me credentials, then maybe I'll consider looking at their works.

 

I take everything said on the Internet as opinion, especially on the forum, from the guys that goes by "feel" and the guys that goes by "calculations."

[jaymill]

Math doesn't mean **** in battle where everything is constantly changing. I use project. And I crit with it. And I kill people. When that one guy is like ~40% hp, project then spinning strike gets it done pretty quick. I open up with force potency, FiB, project, and then the dots. It works awesome for me... Idk what y'all are talking about with this whole not using project thing. Edited March 21, 2012 by jaymill

[Goukes]

People should just take theorycrafting with a large dosage of salt

 

That is very true, but a lot of the math needed for damage calculations is very simple, and easy to reproduce or test for yourself, just like for this particular issue.

 

They see someone who can do basic arithmetic and think it is sound? Show me math degrees, show me credentials, then maybe I'll consider looking at their works.

 

Well it is sound in this case, if you don't believe what others calculate you should at least test or calculate it yourself, before you just say or imply it is wrong.

 

I take everything said on the Internet as opinion, especially on the forum, from the guys that goes by "feel" and the guys that goes by "calculations."

 

This is a very smart way of thinking, you shouldn't accept anything without checking it for yourself, but you can actually check the "calculations" while you can't check if what people "feel" is right on an objective basis.

 

Good Pvpers tend to do well regardless of them gearing perfectly or using the perfect rotations. They also tend to 'feel' something is good because it results in bigger numbers on the screen.

In all mmorpgs i played, successfull PvP'ers spread misinformations about stats, gearing, ability usage over years because it just worked for them as they were very good players. Theorycraft often proved them wrong and they slowly overcame their stubborness and actually improved through it.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Goukes

[Anelyn]

I thought we talk about pvp here, if you have pve in mind, then I can see the reasons against project (but even there you may use it on the move). But for pvp, not using project, as a melee class, who can't have 100% uptime on a target - is a DPS loss :>

[jaymill]

^^^^ what he said

[Exoddos]

Great post! I have been playing balance to rank 71 atm and Love it!...I personally feel out of all the classes it's the hardest. Your to squishy to sit in the fray and dmg is dot dependent on range..But it's ton of fun!

[Anelyn]

You are not that squishy with guard, enemies taunted, and getting some heals. You're in the fray when you're on the offensive, when you play defensive you don't need to be in the thick of things to do your stuff, you circle around it doing your work, hitting whatever target is called on skype /vent etc.

[jbuschell]

It's an awesome underated spec imo and very underused which is why people think its garbage, oh well us balance shadows will keep on trucking while everyone else is playing kc