Concealment Questions

[Neyato]

I decided to roll an Operative yesterday, and I'm definitely going to play Concealment since I don't want to be a healer and don't like dots. I'm going to PVP mainly, so I informed myself what build I could take, and this is the one which seemed to make most sense to me:

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#401Mc0MZMIModdRdGR.1

(with remaining 3 points)

 

So I still got a few questions about it:

 

1) Why does everone seem to like Energy Screen? I mean, we only have a basic dodge chance of 5%, which isn't that much, and the 100% dodge buff only lasts 3 seconds, so 2 enemy attacks. I'd consider putting a point in Inclement Conditioning instead.

 

2) Is Chem-resistant Inlays really worth it? 4% less damage doesn't seem too much for me, i'd probably use the points for Razor Edge or Lethality.

 

3) What do I do with the remaining 3 points? I was thinking about putting them into Lethality or Surgical Steadiness, though I'm not quite sure yet if the last one is worth it as well. Endorphin Rush also seems to be a viable choice.

 

 

In the end, my build would probably look something like this

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#401McZMIRoddMdGRZhM.1

but I'm still not sure if this would be a good choice at all. I was hoping you could give me advice and answer my questions. Again, note that I'm more of a PVP player and don't care about PVE at all, i'm just going to do it for leveling to 50.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited May 13, 2012 by Neyato

[Ryemfoh]

There has been quite a lot of discussion on PVP specs in the forums - if you search you'll definitely find the info you need. On your specific questions:

 

1) Energy Screen - this is mostly useful for the removal of the healing debuff on cloak, although the 100% dodge is useful against certain classes. As you mentioned, 3s isn't long (it's extended to 4s with the 2pc PVP bonus), but it's still a really strong ability when used correctly, particularly against multiple opponents. And don't forget it also clears all DoT's

2) Any damage reduction is useful in PVP, but as you say, 4% isn't that huge (on a 4000 hit that's a reduction of 160) but it does add up over time. Once you are at a reasonable gear level I would say this talent is optional.

3) On the extra points - personally I feel that picking up T2 talents in either Lethality or Medicine would be your best option. Medical Consult is an amazing talent, and if you're going to put 5+ points into the Medicine tree you should definitely pick it up. The other Medic one that's worthwhile is Surgical Steadiness, but good use of LoS actually makes it less so. Personally I run with Slip Away (T2 Lethality) - I find with my play-style having a reduced Debilitate really helps when facing multiple opponents (I prioritise control and damage over personal survivability, and rely on the healers to do their job).

[Neyato]

I see, this makes sense. I guess I'm just going to go with the first build I posted, and decide where I'm going to put the last points once I've gotten more experienced in PVP. I'm still far from level 50 anyway.

Thanks for your reply!

[Rizael]

Medical Consult is an amazing talent, and if you're going to put 5+ points into the Medicine tree you should definitely pick it up. The other Medic one that's worthwhile is Surgical Steadiness, but good use of LoS actually makes it less so. Personally I run with Slip Away (T2 Lethality) - I find with my play-style having a reduced Debilitate really helps when facing multiple opponents (I prioritize control and damage over personal survivability, and rely on the healers to do their job).

 

I agree with this, splitting between lethality and medicine is stupid (other than the +9% cunning) Slip away is better than Incisive action. and if you go the other way I "hear" they are better than t1 in lethatlity (however I think this splits our role focus *shrug*) which may suit your playstyle more. I run slip away as well, since that makes our 4s stun to be on a CD that is 1/2 of any other class giving us some kind of "niche" to fill.

[khouj]

After a million hours playtime I've settled into speccing this lately whenever I play conceal (not often I admit, med and lethality are just more powerful for the team and I'm always group q'ing).

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#4010cZGhModdRdGRZhMb.1

 

After playing with the new combat log parsers It turns out ~25% my damage is poison in a short burst damage scenario without using dart. Just from acid blade. It's more like a third when using dart (any medium or longer fights). Since concealment is pretty useless in situations where you need any kind of substantial healing anyway, I take imperial brew over survival training.

 

Corrosive microbes may be arguable, but in practice I rarely miss the 15s off debilitate. In return the 25% boost to dart, on top of imperial brew, is real nice. I just love seeing the numbers pop up when dart double crits while acid blade is going.

[Ryemfoh]

After a million hours playtime I've settled into speccing this lately whenever I play conceal (not often I admit, med and lethality are just more powerful for the team and I'm always group q'ing).

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#4010cZGhModdRdGRZhMb.1

 

This is exactly the spec I run (other than Slip Away over Microbes) because I'm too cheap to switch between specs regularly and this spec is very competitive in PVE as well. The only time I do respec* is for progression Ops content, and then I usually go with a point each in Microbes and Lethal Injectors for the GCD + Energy savings.

 

* My guild pays for me to respec into healing every now and again when one of the regular healers is away and they think they'll need my OrbS damage more than my Sorc's AoE heals.

[Neyato]

After a million hours playtime I've settled into speccing this lately whenever I play conceal (not often I admit, med and lethality are just more powerful for the team and I'm always group q'ing).

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#4010cZGhModdRdGRZhMb.1

 

After playing with the new combat log parsers It turns out ~25% my damage is poison in a short burst damage scenario without using dart. Just from acid blade. It's more like a third when using dart (any medium or longer fights). Since concealment is pretty useless in situations where you need any kind of substantial healing anyway, I take imperial brew over survival training.

 

Corrosive microbes may be arguable, but in practice I rarely miss the 15s off debilitate. In return the 25% boost to dart, on top of imperial brew, is real nice. I just love seeing the numbers pop up when dart double crits while acid blade is going.

 

Well, I've been thinking about not using dots too much since they mess up the flashbang -> heal combination, which seems to be nice to heal up if I think I need some more health to defeat an enemy in PVP. Acid blade wouldn't be too much of a problem since it's dot only lasts 6 seconds. This flashbang tactic is actually also the reason why I've prefered Survival Training over Imperial Brew and thought about using Incisive Action. But now after reading that the dots are this strong, I'm not sure about this anymore.

 

So, the question would be, if it's more beneficial using Corrosive Dart with Imperial Brew or Flashbang + some Kolto Injections with Survival Training and Incisive Action.

 

I hope you can help me out, thanks

[Ryemfoh]

Try them and see which you prefer. I don't use Corrosive Dart that much in PVP unless I'm fighting a well-geared opponent that I know will take > 15 seconds to kill (so probably about 30% of the time since those targets are generally last on my priority list anyway), but the boost to AB makes the talent worthwhile. I probably use FB 70% of the time for crowd control, 20% of the time as a ghetto interrupt on healers, and only 10% of the time in 1v1 scenarios where it's probably 50% for healing and 50% to drop OrbS on their heads ... YMMV

[JayPres]

I

In the end, my build would probably look something like this

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#401McZMIRoddMdGRZhM.1

but I'm still not sure if this would be a good choice at all. I was hoping you could give me advice and answer my questions. Again, note that I'm more of a PVP player and don't care about PVE at all, i'm just going to do it for leveling to 50.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

So. I am going to pick this apart because there is logic here that escapes me based on my playstyle.

 

T1 abilities.

 

You're concealment, why would you invest in reduction time on Kolto abilities. If you are thinking it will be utile in an "off-healer" situation, it won't. Grab the 9% Cunning and run away from that tree altogether.

 

Survival Train is NOT worth the investment. 3% healing is counter to what you should be pursuing which is damage output. And 9% received (while nice) is again ineffective in the grand scheme of combat.

 

Suggestion: Incisive Action/Survival Training need to go. That put's 5 pts back into your pool.

 

The Lethality Tree looks good.

 

T2

 

Inclement conditionin and Scouting are critical to success when dealing with BH/Shadow and their mirror classes. Not having these fully spec'd will be a supreme source of frustration in the future.

 

Also spec'ing Slip Away if better for positioning when damage dealing.

 

 

 

In all it looks like you are committing yourself about 85% of the way with your point allocation to damage dealing and that is going to make you less useful.