Jurugar Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Got a new high score tonight: http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/2504/screenshot2012040223533.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandylle Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Got a new high score tonight: http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/2504/screenshot2012040223533.jpg Very impressive. I hope you gave your MVP vote to the healer with over 600k healing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rakuenCallisto Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I switched to Balance over 2 weeks ago due to the this guide and I've never looked back. Funnest AC in the game imo (at least that I've tried). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rakuenCallisto Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 (edited) I stopped reading the opening post after the introductory chest beating. I leveled to 50 in balance starting in December. You certaintly didnt invent the spec. Good luck with your chest beating. I hope you are not in my guild. Seriously? Go QQ moar. Really. This is probably the stupidest and most pointless post ever. "Bro I did Balance before it was cool man. I'm so scenester that I waited till people caught on to let everyone know how awesome I am." Seriously though, you sound like a jealous 12 year old who didnt get picked first for dodgeball. Pretty cool you insult someone who took time to help the community with this guide. edit: also I'm pretty sure his blatant attempt at sarcasm went right over your head. Edited April 3, 2012 by rakuenCallisto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makk Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Which of the PvP Gear sets do you recommend for this spec? I've heard arguments for Stalker and for Force Master (with swapped out enhancement), and was wondering what you thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philosomanic Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Which of the PvP Gear sets do you recommend for this spec? I've heard arguments for Stalker and for Force Master (with swapped out enhancement), and was wondering what you thought. Definitely Force Master. Adding a decent self-heal to a skill we use as soon as it's available (average of every 10s or so) is incredibly powerful, especially since a large part of our survival depends on those periodic self-heals. Mind Crush heals for 6-7% of your max health over 6 seconds with the Force Master set. The PvP Stalker set is pretty bad for us. Increased range from the two-piece is okay, but Force Potency is minimally useful for a Balance Shadow. We really only have two skills that can benefit from that, so two charges is plenty. However, the PvE (Tionese/Columni/Rakata) stalker set is incredible for us. We have +50% crit multiplier on Double Strike, so +15% crit rate is a large DPS increase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeJay Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Definitely Force Master. Adding a decent self-heal to a skill we use as soon as it's available (average of every 10s or so) is incredibly powerful, especially since a large part of our survival depends on those periodic self-heals. Mind Crush heals for 6-7% of your max health over 6 seconds with the Force Master set. The PvP Stalker set is pretty bad for us. Increased range from the two-piece is okay, but Force Potency is minimally useful for a Balance Shadow. We really only have two skills that can benefit from that, so two charges is plenty. However, the PvE (Tionese/Columni/Rakata) stalker set is incredible for us. We have +50% crit multiplier on Double Strike, so +15% crit rate is a large DPS increase. Ooh, I was going to use full salker, but with two Force Master pieces. Thanks Though, should I change the mods of the FM for the Stalker ones? FM has a lot of alacrity, iirc, wich is useless for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Ran HM EV last night, and now that I am used to the spec things went really well, with no deaths. I find I am simply not using project except in my 1v1 against the Council so I may try your spec that drops those points. Like! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philosomanic Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Ooh, I was going to use full salker, but with two Force Master pieces. Thanks Though, should I change the mods of the FM for the Stalker ones? FM has a lot of alacrity, iirc, wich is useless for us. Yes, definitely. Almost anything is better than Alacrity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurugar Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Which of the PvP Gear sets do you recommend for this spec? I've heard arguments for Stalker and for Force Master (with swapped out enhancement), and was wondering what you thought. It's a lot of preference. I like being able to burst and I use project as a gap-closer, so 4 pc stalker is what I use. You either get more up-front burst if project doubleprocs (not necessarily ideal, but good for burst for an extra ~1-1.5 dmg), or you get a force potency charge on your second FiB for later in the fight. Plus the 15 seconds off the CD is nice. Force master gives you 3% max health healing on mind crush use, which of course is reduced further by the pvp healing debuff, so it only ends up healing you for ~350 hp when it procs. Also, it does not benefit from psychic absorption like our other self-healing does. It can be potent with a little luck if, say, all 6 dots crit and you end up with 15% max health regen, though of course that scenario depends fully on luck and the force master bonus being there doesnt effect it at all - it would still be 12% without it, since the bonus is just an additive things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philosomanic Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 (edited) It's a lot of preference. I like being able to burst and I use project as a gap-closer, so 4 pc stalker is what I use. You either get more up-front burst if project doubleprocs (not necessarily ideal, but good for burst for an extra ~1-1.5 dmg), or you get a force potency charge on your second FiB for later in the fight. Plus the 15 seconds off the CD is nice. Force master gives you 3% max health healing on mind crush use, which of course is reduced further by the pvp healing debuff, so it only ends up healing you for ~350 hp when it procs. Also, it does not benefit from psychic absorption like our other self-healing does. It can be potent with a little luck if, say, all 6 dots crit and you end up with 15% max health regen, though of course that scenario depends fully on luck and the force master bonus being there doesnt effect it at all - it would still be 12% without it, since the bonus is just an additive things. It actually heals you for 3.5%. The initial damage counts, as well as the six DoT crits. Also, I'm pretty sure it doesn't get hurt by the Trauma debuff. I have a little over 14k health (new level 50, still working on my gear), and it heals me for 70 per tick even in a warzone. It ends up being 0.48%. If it was affected by Trauma, I'd expect to see 49 per tick. I'm at work now, so I may be wrong, but this bears checking. With 16k (which is a good average for moderate gear), Mind Crush will heal you for 560 (plus 600-700 from crits). That's not incredible, but it's not bad. Every little bit of defense counts, especially since a large part of our survivability comes from periodic self-healing. Edited April 4, 2012 by Philosomanic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurugar Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 It actually heals you for 3.5%. The initial damage counts, as well as the six DoT crits. Also, I'm pretty sure it doesn't get hurt by the Trauma debuff. I have a little over 14k health (new level 50, still working on my gear), and it heals me for 70 per tick even in a warzone. It ends up being 0.48%. If it was affected by Trauma, I'd expect to see 49 per tick. I'm at work now, so I may be wrong, but this bears checking. With 16k (which is a good average for moderate gear), Mind Crush will heal you for 560 (plus 600-700 from crits). That's not incredible, but it's not bad. Every little bit of defense counts, especially since a large part of our survivability comes from periodic self-healing. That would be a striking abnormality, as even our heals from dot crits get hit by the trauma debuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LessQQMorePewPew Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MczZrZfMdRrbkrfz.1 theres the link to the spec i run jurugar since u asked http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601McMZbZcRfRrMkrfz.1 I'll prob run that for rateds though Edited April 9, 2012 by LessQQMorePewPew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shopach Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hey Jurugar, great guide. I'm trying out your balance spec now (I was running one much like LessQQ's before). I have a question though. I am a pug only player and I average between 250k-350k per match. The highest I've had is 450k. I know you're getting huge numbers partially from the fact that you have healers to help out, but my question is: tl;dr: Is there a big mistake (apart from those you mentioned in the original post, like over-using project etc) you see a lot of balance shadows making that reduces their overall damage performance? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LessQQMorePewPew Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) Hey Jurugar, great guide. I'm trying out your balance spec now (I was running one much like LessQQ's before). I have a question though. I am a pug only player and I average between 250k-350k per match. The highest I've had is 450k. I know you're getting huge numbers partially from the fact that you have healers to help out, but my question is: tl;dr: Is there a big mistake (apart from those you mentioned in the original post, like over-using project etc) you see a lot of balance shadows making that reduces their overall damage performance? Thanks Ya I am speccing out of mine to the 7/2/32 I posted to get used to it before rateds after talking to Jurugar a bunch in guild chat today. Jurugar and I disagree on one thing but a major mistake I see made is focusing too much on dotting multiple targets and not enough on burst. Burst kills people and balance can still dish it out just fine. EDIT: Decided to go with 7/3/31 instead of spinning resolve Edited April 9, 2012 by LessQQMorePewPew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LessQQMorePewPew Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hey Jurugar, great guide. I'm trying out your balance spec now (I was running one much like LessQQ's before). I have a question though. I am a pug only player and I average between 250k-350k per match. The highest I've had is 450k. I know you're getting huge numbers partially from the fact that you have healers to help out, but my question is: tl;dr: Is there a big mistake (apart from those you mentioned in the original post, like over-using project etc) you see a lot of balance shadows making that reduces their overall damage performance? Thanks btw this is zerj shop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurugar Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) Hey Jurugar, great guide. I'm trying out your balance spec now (I was running one much like LessQQ's before). I have a question though. I am a pug only player and I average between 250k-350k per match. The highest I've had is 450k. I know you're getting huge numbers partially from the fact that you have healers to help out, but my question is: tl;dr: Is there a big mistake (apart from those you mentioned in the original post, like over-using project etc) you see a lot of balance shadows making that reduces their overall damage performance? Thanks A lot of it is playstyle i.e. how you play your shadow. Some people charge into the fray and forget they have all these ranged moves and dots. Others stand in the back and forget that they're a melee class at heart. You need to spread out your damage, but still focus down single targets when you can - but remember, it's the infiltration shadow's job to tunnel down a single target, not yours. If you're chasing one guy around the map the entire time, you're not doing it right. Edited April 9, 2012 by Jurugar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shopach Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Hey zerj, so yeah my spec was definitely a lot like yours I usually only dot multiples if I FiB more than one, just for the extra force (and potential crit heals). I notice that the new spec (starting from your old one zerj) drops shadowy veil in favor of containment (and a couple other exchanges from survivability to damage/control). Do you guys think this exchange is 100% a better plan because of the iffy bonus from armor? Or does it again come down to playstyle? From your post Jurugar, I generally fall into the rush in and get dead shadow type unfortunately, but I just can't help myself That's why I'm asking about shadowy veil. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LessQQMorePewPew Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Hey zerj, so yeah my spec was definitely a lot like yours I usually only dot multiples if I FiB more than one, just for the extra force (and potential crit heals). I notice that the new spec (starting from your old one zerj) drops shadowy veil in favor of containment (and a couple other exchanges from survivability to damage/control). Do you guys think this exchange is 100% a better plan because of the iffy bonus from armor? Or does it again come down to playstyle? From your post Jurugar, I generally fall into the rush in and get dead shadow type unfortunately, but I just can't help myself That's why I'm asking about shadowy veil. Thanks! It comes down to 100% playstyle. I moved to the new spec for rateds because in that enviroment the little survivability isn't worth the control. If I was going to continue solo Qing etc then I would stay with my old 6/4/31 as in PUGs its hard to effectively control people due to PUGs screwing up resolve and breaking CC etc. I never used 6/4/31 with the intention of it being the best in a group enviroment. I used it because solo Qing it was much better it felt like. Containment requires some getting used to but it is very useful. DPS tank down some, lift healer, 8 seconds of DPS on tank without heals, ???, profit. Or the jurugar special for capping nodes etc. It is very useful especially with the range it has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbuschell Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Screw kinetic combat I'm going back to balance, I really did try playing KC for a couple days but found myself leveling my scoundrel instead its just a snoozefest, I'm going back to my true love, balance spec. To bad i canf play for a week since my respec is like 120k creds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LessQQMorePewPew Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Screw kinetic combat I'm going back to balance, I really did try playing KC for a couple days but found myself leveling my scoundrel instead its just a snoozefest, I'm going back to my true love, balance spec. To bad i canf play for a week since my respec is like 120k creds This. And kinetic DPS is gimmicky it has **** burst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbuschell Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Really the only cool thing about KC is force pull, but insta ww is also very effective as balance, to me it deserves more love and recognition, and I'm tired of wrecking faces as balance and then getting tells from someone i Pwned saying things like "wow way to be a noob and play tank shadow noob lol noob", they just don't know it was balance owning them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LessQQMorePewPew Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I'm tired of wrecking faces as balance and then getting tells from someone i Pwned saying things like "wow way to be a noob and play tank shadow noob lol noob", they just don't know it was balance owning them Yep. QFT. soikjhfiokfhndjksfdhnfdsjkdsf not long enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philosomanic Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Yeah. Once you really start to play Balance and you've gotten somewhat good at it, it's almost impossible to go back. Infiltration was nice because of the in-combat run speed boost, but it gold old fast. Kinetic was torture to me, and I payed the respec cost to get out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eosbourne Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Jurugar , will you be providing an update as appropriate for 1.2 patch after you have had some testing completed to this guide? I have found as a leveling Balance Shadow the 0/10/31 build out you advised to have made a difference for me and less downtime as I learn the dynamics of the class in a PVE setting. Your guide does not spoon feed in any way but points a person in a better direction towards the understanding of the Balance tree. Again thank you for taking the time to even post this guide, you didnt have to. Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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