kinetic combat spec

[stephenalandavie]

Has anybody got any examples?

 

The guides aren't working as torhead has been messing about with its configuration again.

 

All specs are welcome I am always wanting to try out new ways

[Skolops]

Has anybody got any examples?

 

The guides aren't working as torhead has been messing about with its configuration again.

 

All specs are welcome I am always wanting to try out new ways

 

Standard DPS/Utility KC for PvP: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MfrozrskrsZZf0cM.2

 

Pure Tank KC for PvE or PvP: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MIrokbskrsZZf0cM.2

 

You can swap points around into or out of Shadowsight as is your preference. I prefer it for PvP.

[stephenalandavie]

Standard DPS/Utility KC for PvP: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MfrozrskrsZZf0cM.2

 

Pure Tank KC for PvE or PvP: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MIrokbskrsZZf0cM.2

 

You can swap points around into or out of Shadowsight as is your preference. I prefer it for PvP.

 

Those are some Good specs , Thank you

 

would those two points not go better in expertise?

Edited July 29, 2012 by stephenalandavie

[Skolops]

Those are some Good specs , Thank you

 

would those two points not go better in expertise?

 

It's up to you. I prefer them in the endurance, as the extra damage you're getting from the expertise on your combat stance effect is minutely tiny. The extra 400 or so health you can get in high level gear isn't much either, but I personally value it more than the extra 13 damage per proc.

[LagunaD]

would those two points not go better in expertise?

 

Expertise is an absolutely terrible skill for Kinetic. It is a trap for people who can't or won't do math.

 

For an investment of 3 points, it increases the damage of combat technique by 9%. Sounds good, right? After all 9% appears to be a moderately significant buff. The problem is, it's a buff to an insignificant amount of damage.

 

For my nearly full Campaign Shadow tank, Combat Technique hits for 140 damage with a 4.5 s internal cooldown. Best case, it procs exactly every 4.5 seconds, and contributes 140/4.5 = 31.1 DPS. Increasing this by 9% means it would do 33.9 DPS. That's an increase of +2.8 DPS for an investment of 3 skill points, or less than +1 DPS per skill point. In terms of your overall damage and threat output, it is less than +0.5% for a 3-point investment.

 

Getting the picture now? It is quite possibly the most useless skill of any tree of any advanced class. And remember, the above is the absolutely best case scenario where Combat Technique procs at the theoretical maximum (and statistically impossible) rate. The actual benefit will be considerably less.

 

The endurance buff, on the other hand, scales nicely with your gear, increases the size of your %health self-heals, and will help keep you alive in any situation where you are at risk.

Edited July 30, 2012 by LagunaD

[stephenalandavie]

Expertise is an absolutely terrible skill for Kinetic. It is a trap for people who can't or won't do math.

 

For an investment of 3 points, it increases the damage of combat technique by 9%. Sounds good, right? After all 9% appears to be a moderately significant buff. The problem is, it's a buff to an insignificant amount of damage.

 

For my nearly full Campaign Shadow tank, Combat Technique hits for 140 damage with a 4.5 s internal cooldown. Best case, it procs exactly every 4.5 seconds, and contributes 140/4.5 = 31.1 DPS. Increasing this by 9% means it would do 33.9 DPS. That's an increase of +2.8 DPS for an investment of 3 skill points, or less than +1 DPS per skill point. In terms of your overall damage and threat output, it is less than +0.5% for a 3-point investment.

 

 

 

 

Getting the picture now? It is quite possibly the most useless skill of any tree of any advanced class. And remember, the above is the absolutely best case scenario where Combat Technique procs at the theoretical maximum (and statistically impossible) rate. The actual benefit will be considerably less.

 

The endurance buff, on the other hand, scales nicely with your gear, increases the size of your %health self-heals, and will help keep you alive in any situation where you are at risk.

 

 

Humm well how about rapid recovery?

[LagunaD]

Humm well how about rapid recovery?

 

Rapid Recovery is just about as bad as Expertise.

 

It can be shown that for a steady rate of attacks, each of which has a certain probability to proc some effect with an internal cooldown, the average rate of procs should be:

 

R = pr / (1 + prT), where

 

r = rate of proc chances (rate of outgoing attacks, in the case of Combat Technique)

p = probability of a proc per chance

T = internal cooldown

 

It is convenient to measure time in units of GCDs, then r is the average number of outgoing attacks per GCD. For our abilities, this is between 1 and 3, and 2/GCD is a pretty safe guess for the average rate.

 

The internal cooldown T is 3 GCDs. The proc chance is 0.50 without Rapid Recovery, and 0.65 with Rapid Recovery.

 

So the average rate of procs without the skill is:

 

R = 0.5 * 2/(1 + 0.5*2*3) = 0.25 procs/GCD

 

The average rate of procs with the skill is:

 

R = 0.65 * 2/(1 + 0.65*2*3) = 0.2653 procs/GCD

 

A 2-point investment therefore gains you 0.0153 procs/GCD, or about 0.01 procs per second (i.e. 1 additional proc every 100 seconds, on average). This is a 6% increase in the proc rate, which means it is about +2 DPS and +3 HPS on my geared Level 50 Shadow Tank for 2 skill points.

 

No thanks.

 

With around 2000 Endurance, a 2 point investment in Mental Fortitude buys you +40 Endurance, or +400 hit points and +32 extra heals every time you use Telekinetic Throw with Harnessed Shadows and +40 extra heals every time you use Battle Readiness with Impact Control. Depending on how often you use TKT, the HPS increase is only a little less than Rapid Recovery, plus you get the extra hit points.

[Wheelerific]

Standard DPS/Utility KC for PvP: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MfrozrskrsZZf0cM.2

 

Pure Tank KC for PvE or PvP: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601MIrokbskrsZZf0cM.2

 

You can swap points around into or out of Shadowsight as is your preference. I prefer it for PvP.

 

Im new to the whole Shadow thing, currently lvl 46, but reading thru a little, seems like

 

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rIMozrskdsZZf0cM.2

 

build has the best use of points towards talents that actually do something.

 

No?

 

Looking at pvp.

 

Not taking expertise, not taking rapid recovery, not taking kinetic ward obv, and only putting in 1 point to Nerve Wracking, bc an extra 6% dmg inc to a target ONLY while under your CC seems pretty stupid.

 

Not sure why you would link builds with wasted points is all.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Wheelerific

[Skolops]

Im new to the whole Shadow thing, currently lvl 46, but reading thru a little, seems like

 

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#601rIMozrskdsZZf0cM.2

 

build has the best use of points towards talents that actually do something.

 

No?

 

Looking at pvp.

 

Not taking expertise, not taking rapid recovery, not taking kinetic ward obv, and only putting in 1 point to Nerve Wracking, bc an extra 6% dmg inc to a target ONLY while under your CC seems pretty stupid.

 

Not sure why you would link builds with wasted points is all.

 

Expertise is, in my opinion, stupid and I wouldn't take it.

 

I think that rapid recovery is a decent skill. I have run builds with it, and builds without, and I think that its worth it as a 31 point KC Shadow. The extra damage it adds over the course of a warzone is not insignificant, and the extra healing does add up as well. I have run a hybrid build without it, but I would not personally go without if I am taking 31 points in KC.

 

Double Bladed Saber Defense is a talent I would not take in a 31 point KC tree unless I was going in full tank gear, with a shield and everything, because defensive stats just don't work that well in PvP AND because I've never had energy problems that would warrant having it. In full tank gear, the defensive bonus of 4% can combine with your gear stats to actually reach a point where it is making a difference, and in this case you will actually see extra energy regeneration from it, but in DPS gear where the talent brings your defense chance up to 14%, its really a complete and total waste. That extra 4% defense is really not keeping you alive, and you're not defending enough attacks to regain much force. In full tank gear, on the other hand, this talent can push your defense chance to almost 30%, and you will also see a lot of energy regen as a result. Thus, in tank gear, I'd take it, in DPS, I would not.

 

As for nerve racking, don't remotely underestimate the value of this talent. Remember, it increases damage from ALL sources while an enemy is controlled. This can be the difference between a you and a group of teammates downing the ball carrier just before he scores and giving up the point. It can be the difference between that last guy on Voidstar dieing in time to get the door planted, and him surviving through your stun to stop the plant.

 

Further, if you do things correctly and get 2 pieces of survivor gear, replacing the mods/enhancements with DPS ones but keeping the armoring for the 2 piece survivor set bonus, you'll have targets controlled by your spinning kick all day. Do NOT underestimate how much of a difference 6% from all sources can make at that critical moment.

 

Is it worth giving up the extra talent point in Mental Fortitude? When you talk about small differences, think of this one. The highest HP I have ever seen on a Shadow was 26000 in full and optimized tank gear, and to illustrate just how high it is, consider that it took me a long time to figure out just how to min/max the various mods and enhancements to get that high. You aren't going higher, and if you are, it isn't by much at ALL. Now, if you have this unwieldy amount of HP, that extra point gives you 260 extra HP, which is absolutely meager. Now consider that over the course of a single Force Stun, the single point in Nerve Racking can result in an extra 200 damage coming from you alone, and when you add in your teammates you will see how vastly superior a use of a talent point it is.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Skolops

[Wheelerific]

 

Double Bladed Saber Defense is a talent I would not take in a 31 point KC tree unless I was going in full tank gear, with a shield and everything, because defensive stats just don't work that well in PvP AND because I've never had energy problems that would warrant having it. In full tank gear, the defensive bonus of 4% can combine with your gear stats to actually reach a point where it is making a difference, and in this case you will actually see extra energy regeneration from it, but in DPS gear where the talent brings your defense chance up to 14%, its really a complete and total waste. That extra 4% defense is really not keeping you alive, and you're not defending enough attacks to regain much force. In full tank gear, on the other hand, this talent can push your defense chance to almost 30%, and you will also see a lot of energy regen as a result. Thus, in tank gear, I'd take it, in DPS, I would not.

 

I guess this is a question I should've asked elsewhere, but since you're here

 

From my understanding of Shadows/Sins, it is best for pvp to have this tank spec, while using the DPS gear, not only for set bonuses, but stats as well, right? Like max willpower/power/crit/surge etc

 

While I've been leveling, I've used a shield with my healer pet and never had issues, seemed to still do good dps.

 

For endgame 50 pvp, is it best to not use a shield, instead going for extra stats?

 

That is where my opinion on Double Bladed Sab Defense comes from I guess.

 

Thanks for taking the time

 

I've been Empire for 8 months leave my noobiness alone lol

Edited July 31, 2012 by Wheelerific

[Boarg]

As for nerve racking, don't remotely underestimate the value of this talent. Remember, it increases damage from ALL sources while an enemy is controlled. This can be the difference between a you and a group of teammates downing the ball carrier just before he scores and giving up the point. It can be the difference between that last guy on Voidstar dieing in time to get the door planted, and him surviving through your stun to stop the plant.

 

Further, if you do things correctly and get 2 pieces of survivor gear, replacing the mods/enhancements with DPS ones but keeping the armoring for the 2 piece survivor set bonus, you'll have targets controlled by your spinning kick all day. Do NOT underestimate how much of a difference 6% from all sources can make at that critical moment.

 

Is it worth giving up the extra talent point in Mental Fortitude? When you talk about small differences, think of this one. The highest HP I have ever seen on a Shadow was 26000 in full and optimized tank gear, and to illustrate just how high it is, consider that it took me a long time to figure out just how to min/max the various mods and enhancements to get that high. You aren't going higher, and if you are, it isn't by much at ALL. Now, if you have this unwieldy amount of HP, that extra point gives you 260 extra HP, which is absolutely meager. Now consider that over the course of a single Force Stun, the single point in Nerve Racking can result in an extra 200 damage coming from you alone, and when you add in your teammates you will see how vastly superior a use of a talent point it is.

 

Something I would encourage you to do with Nerve Wracking is just start trying to put numbers to it in terms of average damaged gained overall and such - even taking credit for teammate's increased damage. How much % of time do your targets spend in stuns affected by it? Remember that you can't attack for the first 1.5s of each stun yourself. How much extra damage do you do in that time? On average, how many teammate attacks occur in those times? (You might be just peeling for a healer or something most of the time you use stuns.) Even where you have to make assumptions, just make reasonable realistic ones and go with it until you end up with some numbers. Even if the numbers are wrong (surely will be to at least some extent) they will at least put you in a ballpark value. (I have done this before myself.)

 

Sure, those special situations you describe can occur occasionally...but you're probably lucky if they happen to an extent that Nerve Wracking actually makes the difference once every 10 matches or so. And you can make the same case for lots of other talents....does 400 extra hp help you score the huttball where you would have died? Or a lucky parry from double-bladed saber defense? Or one extra combat tech heal from rapid recovery? You can make that case for pretty much anything.

 

What I think you'll find is that Nerve Wracking provides extremely low overall value. Sure, every once in a while you might win the lottery with it, but normally it does very little or nothing at all.

[Skolops]

I guess this is a question I should've asked elsewhere, but since you're here

 

From my understanding of Shadows/Sins, it is best for pvp to have this tank spec, while using the DPS gear, not only for set bonuses, but stats as well, right? Like max willpower/power/crit/surge etc

 

While I've been leveling, I've used a shield with my healer pet and never had issues, seemed to still do good dps.

 

For endgame 50 pvp, is it best to not use a shield, instead going for extra stats?

 

That is where my opinion on Double Bladed Sab Defense comes from I guess.

 

Thanks for taking the time

 

Thinking has changed on this over time. It used to be that virtually nobody ran full tank gear of any kind in really any class, but recently you've started to see more of it, and now in rateds most of the very good rated teams have at least one guy in full tank gear.

 

Why have opinions changed? Part of it is that the DPS classes people are playing changed. There are four kinds of damage in the game: melee and ranged ("white damage," since the numbers are white when you hit someone), and force and tech ("yellow damage," since the damage numbers are yellow on screen). When the game launched, everyone was playing sorcerers and operatives and these other classes that do a lot of tech or force damage - damage which cannot be shielded or defensed. However, as the game progressed, you started to see more things like snipers, marauders, now even powertechs - classes which can do or which rely to a degree on white damage - that is, ranged and melee damage (though marauders and PTs do a lot of yellow damage too). As a result, some people started taking tank gear more seriously.

 

Now shields are yet another issue, because apart from them only being able to shield certain kinds of damage, the way the game works in PvP an opponent's critical hit chance cuts into your shield chance. This means that if you have a 50% shield chance, but somebody's attack has a proc to give it a 60% crit chance, you have a 0% shield chance against that attack. Now, you will still shield a lot of filler attacks with that 50% rating, but when you have played a lot of classes, you come to realize that basically every class has one or two main damaging abilities which, when you set up your skill tree, get either permanent or proc based increases in crit chance, many of them going over 50%, which is as high as you'll really get a shield chance. In other words, there are TONS of people whose main damaging abilities will virtually never be shielded. Therefore, many don't use shields.

 

These problems don't apply in PvE, where your shield and defense chance make a huge difference at virtually all times because of the difference in design between the NPC enemies and player characters.

 

That said, it does make a difference because it will shield a lot of fillers and even a fair amount of main damaging abilities when their rotation isn't able to line up perfectly or when they are using one of their other high DPS abilities which doesn't have increased crit chance. On top of this, having a pure tank in a ranked warzone who can guard, stay alive through heals on his massive 24 or 26k HP, and be shielding or defensing ANY amount of attacks does help.

 

So, there are two ways you can go now once you hit 50. You can go all DPS gear, which I have (though I would strongly urge getting the 2 piece survivor set bonus and just switching the mods). If you do so, you'll still have nice survivability while having the ability to do 300k+ once you start to get geared. On the other hand, you can go full tank gear and dedicate yourself to guarding, protecting your teammates, and just being a real nuisance who is hard to kill off to get that cap.

 

In either case, you should be taunting and trying to protect your healers or other focused targets as best you can, because even in full DPS gear, your KC tree still gives you a lot of damage reducing and peeling abilities to use on your opponents.

[Skolops]

Something I would encourage you to do with Nerve Wracking is just start trying to put numbers to it in terms of average damaged gained overall and such - even taking credit for teammate's increased damage. How much % of time do your targets spend in stuns affected by it? Remember that you can't attack for the first 1.5s of each stun yourself. How much extra damage do you do in that time? On average, how many teammate attacks occur in those times? (You might be just peeling for a healer or something most of the time you use stuns.) Even where you have to make assumptions, just make reasonable realistic ones and go with it until you end up with some numbers. Even if the numbers are wrong (surely will be to at least some extent) they will at least put you in a ballpark value. (I have done this before myself.)

 

Sure, those special situations you describe can occur occasionally...but you're probably lucky if they happen to an extent that Nerve Wracking actually makes the difference once every 10 matches or so. And you can make the same case for lots of other talents....does 400 extra hp help you score the huttball where you would have died? Or a lucky parry from double-bladed saber defense? Or one extra combat tech heal from rapid recovery? You can make that case for pretty much anything.

 

What I think you'll find is that Nerve Wracking provides extremely low overall value. Sure, every once in a while you might win the lottery with it, but normally it does very little or nothing at all.

 

I think this is true to a degree, but the question then becomes, where would you rather put the points?

 

Like I said, 3% extra damage bonus while they're controlled, or 260 extra HP? - and honestly on the vast, vast majority of toons it will be a lot closer to 200 extra HP.

 

So, while I do agree in part, I also don't really see anywhere I'd rather put the points.

[Boarg]

I think this is true to a degree, but the question then becomes, where would you rather put the points?

 

Like I said, 3% extra damage bonus while they're controlled, or 260 extra HP? - and honestly on the vast, vast majority of toons it will be a lot closer to 200 extra HP.

 

So, while I do agree in part, I also don't really see anywhere I'd rather put the points.

 

Yeah, unfortunately there are a lot of very poor filler talents in the Kinetic tree.

 

And if Nerve Wracking is a preferred low value filler talent for you, that's fine. It's just better to see it as "I have to put a point somewhere" than as some sort of great underdog talent.

 

Personally, if I'm having to take low value, I go for the stuff that has continual effect. So yeah, I'd go for slightly smaller health pool and tiny bit bigger self heals every time just because it's always there and accumulating.

 

Realistically, a lot of these talents are so bad it hardly matters which one you take as long as you aren't passing over one of the decent ones.

[angrydurf]

Thinking has changed on this over time. It used to be that virtually nobody ran full tank gear of any kind in really any class, but recently you've started to see more of it, and now in rateds most of the very good rated teams have at least one guy in full tank gear.

 

Why have opinions changed? Part of it is that the DPS classes people are playing changed. There are four kinds of damage in the game: melee and ranged ("white damage," since the numbers are white when you hit someone), and force and tech ("yellow damage," since the damage numbers are yellow on screen). When the game launched, everyone was playing sorcerers and operatives and these other classes that do a lot of tech or force damage - damage which cannot be shielded or defensed. However, as the game progressed, you started to see more things like snipers, marauders, now even powertechs - classes which can do or which rely to a degree on white damage - that is, ranged and melee damage (though marauders and PTs do a lot of yellow damage too). As a result, some people started taking tank gear more seriously.

 

Now shields are yet another issue, because apart from them only being able to shield certain kinds of damage, the way the game works in PvP an opponent's critical hit chance cuts into your shield chance. This means that if you have a 50% shield chance, but somebody's attack has a proc to give it a 60% crit chance, you have a 0% shield chance against that attack. Now, you will still shield a lot of filler attacks with that 50% rating, but when you have played a lot of classes, you come to realize that basically every class has one or two main damaging abilities which, when you set up your skill tree, get either permanent or proc based increases in crit chance, many of them going over 50%, which is as high as you'll really get a shield chance. In other words, there are TONS of people whose main damaging abilities will virtually never be shielded. Therefore, many don't use shields.

 

These problems don't apply in PvE, where your shield and defense chance make a huge difference at virtually all times because of the difference in design between the NPC enemies and player characters.

 

That said, it does make a difference because it will shield a lot of fillers and even a fair amount of main damaging abilities when their rotation isn't able to line up perfectly or when they are using one of their other high DPS abilities which doesn't have increased crit chance. On top of this, having a pure tank in a ranked warzone who can guard, stay alive through heals on his massive 24 or 26k HP, and be shielding or defensing ANY amount of attacks does help.

 

So, there are two ways you can go now once you hit 50. You can go all DPS gear, which I have (though I would strongly urge getting the 2 piece survivor set bonus and just switching the mods). If you do so, you'll still have nice survivability while having the ability to do 300k+ once you start to get geared. On the other hand, you can go full tank gear and dedicate yourself to guarding, protecting your teammates, and just being a real nuisance who is hard to kill off to get that cap.

 

In either case, you should be taunting and trying to protect your healers or other focused targets as best you can, because even in full DPS gear, your KC tree still gives you a lot of damage reducing and peeling abilities to use on your opponents.

 

That's not how shield chance works. Crit does override shield but will only eliminate it when pushed to 100% crit. This does make shield less useful but it is incredibly rare that someone will push their crit high enough to actually cut your shield chance down at all. Basically what happens if you have a 40% shield chance and are hit with a 60% crit chance attack there is a 1-100 roll 1-40 shielded 41-100 crit. If they push over 60% it will start to cut your shield chance but outside of pretty situational buffs that pretty much doesn't happen in current gear.

 

But defenses are pretty weaksauce in PvP with the number of force/tech attacks around. It has improved as Sage/sorcs and Ops/Scoundrels have gotten clubbed about the head and shoulders with the nerf bat. But even mara/sents, sniper/slingers, etc use a fair bit of force and tech attacks so they don't help near as much as in PvE. If you are playing as a full tank and puttign your emphasis on guard and taunt and some CC it's worth it to get hte defenses usually. If you want to slap guard on a healer and play low rent DPS you won't suffer much for going in with DPS gear as far as survivability goes.

[Skolops]

That's not how shield chance works. Crit does override shield but will only eliminate it when pushed to 100% crit. This does make shield less useful but it is incredibly rare that someone will push their crit high enough to actually cut your shield chance down at all. Basically what happens if you have a 40% shield chance and are hit with a 60% crit chance attack there is a 1-100 roll 1-40 shielded 41-100 crit. If they push over 60% it will start to cut your shield chance but outside of pretty situational buffs that pretty much doesn't happen in current gear.

 

But defenses are pretty weaksauce in PvP with the number of force/tech attacks around. It has improved as Sage/sorcs and Ops/Scoundrels have gotten clubbed about the head and shoulders with the nerf bat. But even mara/sents, sniper/slingers, etc use a fair bit of force and tech attacks so they don't help near as much as in PvE. If you are playing as a full tank and puttign your emphasis on guard and taunt and some CC it's worth it to get hte defenses usually. If you want to slap guard on a healer and play low rent DPS you won't suffer much for going in with DPS gear as far as survivability goes.

 

Shield chance is cut into any time your shield chance + your opponent's crit chance > 100%, and that happens a LOT with the different skills, talents, and rotation procs in this game.

[Boarg]

Shield chance is cut into any time your shield chance + your opponent's crit chance > 100%, and that happens a LOT with the different skills, talents, and rotation procs in this game.

 

I would just point out that most of those special high crit chance cases involve yellow attacks (tech/force) that don't even roll against shields in the first place. For example, Particle Acceleration and Force Potency give us high crit chance, but the attacks are all yellow.

 

Even so, it is kinda cruddy that since it's a single roll system, a shield will never give any benefit when you need it most, which is when you take a critical hit.

 

If someone has 50% shield chance with 50% absorb, they like to think that shield is reducing overall damage taken by 25%. (0.5*0.5=0.25) But, not even half of overall damage is shieldable in PvP. Lets generously assume 40%. (0.25*0.4=0.10) And guard damage is bugged to never shield or dodge for the tank...if you're a good tank, roughly half of your incoming damage is guard redirect if not more. (0.10*0.5=0.05) And then because of how the hit table works, the shield isn't even reducing overall damage by that much because a disproportionate amount of overall damage taken is crits, and shields only convert non-crits into shielded attacks. So, even with really good shield stats, equipping a shield generator in pvp only reduces overall damage taken by less than 5%. And in reality, a pvp player usually doesn't have good shield stats. They're usually closer to 20% chance with 20% absorb. When you have shield stats like that, equipping a shield generator reduces overall damage by less than 1%.

[stephenalandavie]

I would just point out that most of those special high crit chance cases involve yellow attacks (tech/force) that don't even roll against shields in the first place. For example, Particle Acceleration and Force Potency give us high crit chance, but the attacks are all yellow.

 

Even so, it is kinda cruddy that since it's a single roll system, a shield will never give any benefit when you need it most, which is when you take a critical hit.

 

If someone has 50% shield chance with 50% absorb, they like to think that shield is reducing overall damage taken by 25%. (0.5*0.5=0.25) But, not even half of overall damage is shieldable in PvP. Lets generously assume 40%. (0.25*0.4=0.10) And guard damage is bugged to never shield or dodge for the tank...if you're a good tank, roughly half of your incoming damage is guard redirect if not more. (0.10*0.5=0.05) And then because of how the hit table works, the shield isn't even reducing overall damage by that much because a disproportionate amount of overall damage taken is crits, and shields only convert non-crits into shielded attacks. So, even with really good shield stats, equipping a shield generator in pvp only reduces overall damage taken by less than 5%. And in reality, a pvp player usually doesn't have good shield stats. They're usually closer to 20% chance with 20% absorb. When you have shield stats like that, equipping a shield generator reduces overall damage by less than 1%.

 

I keep telling my guild mates this, its the same when I see shadows using kinetic ward in PvP I can't help but attack them for fun ;P