PvE Guide: The Ultimate Raiding Shadow DPS Compository!

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

Welcome To The Ultimate Sith Assassin DPS Raiding Compository!

 

Hey guys, I haven't seen a PvE guide for dps sins around here, so I decided I will take the initiative. I'm Warlord Triveticus of Prophecy Of The Five, and I'm bringing a guide for all raiding Assassins/Shadows who DPS. This write up will cover the multiple pillars of how a DPS Assassin/Shadow can bring his own in raids and surpass even the greatest dps.

 

Ability Names Converted to Shadow Terms:

Project=Shock

Trash=Double Strike

Discharge=Force Breach

Whirling Blow=Lacerate

Raze=Force Strike

Death Field=Force In Balance

Deception= Infiltration

Voltaic Slash= Clairvoyant Strike

Overload=Force Wave

Surging Charge=Shadow Technique

Lightning Charge=Force Technique

Darkness=Kinetic Combat

Dark Charge=Combat Technique

Force Shroud=Resilience

Death Mark=Force Suppression

Celerity=Avoidance

Induction=Circling Shadows

Sever Force=Creeping Terror

Insulation=Shadowy Veil

 

Please notify me if I forget any terms so I many add them to the list. Thanks all!

 

General Overview:

Stats

Specs

Keybinding

Rotations

Itemization

Tips and Tricks for Boss Fights

 

STATS:

 

As with all raiding assassins, you want to find the perfect balance between stats. taking tips from a few fellow dpsers and other raiding DPS Assassins, I've come to my personal stat balance of:

 

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/88bb95d0-7fd2-4fc7-939e-dfa40e3fd9e3

 

The reason you may ask why my accuracy is so low is well.. You don't need that much accuracy. Sure, you miss a maul or saber strike, but Maul is dirt cheap and the proc will not go away after a missed maul. Missing an ability or two will not have a major overall impact on your dps. My crit levels are as shown in madness, or 34% as deception. You wouldn't want anymore after 37% because after rigorous testing, there is hardly any benefit from increased crit over these values as you have to stack an INCREDIBLE amount of critical rating for a boost, so going that far into diminishing returns is completely not worth it and you will end up sacrificing almost all of your power investing into crit rating.

 

SPECS

 

There are four widespread specs for DPS raiding, and those are 8/5/28, 5/5/31, 2/31/8, 3/7/31.

 

3/7/31:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/assassin#30-c23-1fe72e8d2f

 

The current standard for raiding DPS assassins, only one point taken in chain shock as it a massive sacrifice in force for shock and will only be used once every 20 seconds for the buff.

 

8/5/28:

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/assassin#303c-23-3e72e832f

 

A more simple spec, utilizing the bonus charge damage and sacrificing creeping terror improves force management and reduces the need to micromanage, utilizing more death marks for crushing darkness ticks.

New players to this spec will need a bit of practice to keep up to full madness.

 

5/5/31:

 

Same as 3/7/31 but points placed into avoidance will now be placed in trashing blades.

 

2/31/8:

 

http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/assassin#20-6e8cf78e2f-30f

 

Cookie-cutter deception build. Uses resourcefulness to lower cooldown of overcharge saber for extra dps. Will not pull as much dps as madness but is suited to different fights where it can take advantage of blackout and burst capabilities.

 

Project-less Balance:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200bc0MZcZfRbRrrkMfz.2

 

KEYBINDING

 

I recommend a sith assassin dps should fully keybind his/her abilites, not doing so will not cause a drop in dps or effectiveness, but I find it helps for efficiency over clicking. I use modifiers and keys such as;

 

QERTVXF23456, Then the same keys using shift modifiers, and I also have a razer naga, so I bind abilities to numberpad. I recommend placing cooldowns on the main bar because those are what you will pay attention to most and you will be prepared to use them, and also enable cooldown timers for extra precision (Comes in handy for difficult boss fights, such as Nightmare Kephess, Firebrand & Stormcaller, Terror From Beyond, and such.)

 

ROTATION

 

NOTE: Do not use force lightning (Telekinetic Throw) in any dps rotation or spam shadow strike, these will produce abysmal dps results and shouldn't be bothered with. Only use it with the proc (SS)

 

A madness assassin has a very complicated dps rotation, but will produce incredible results if all actions are played down to a T.

 

The basic Madness Rotation goes as follows:

 

Discharge

Creeping Terror

Trash (To Proc Raze, if there are no procs proceed to the next step.)

Death Field (Off Cooldown, no matter whether you have DoTs on or off)

Trash (Only do this if Raze has not been procced yet, proceed to spam after deathmarks regenerate force)

Crushing Darkness

Shock (Intitial Rotation only, reapply after buff falls off. Do not spam, this costs a massive amount of force to sustain.)

Trash (Continue use of Trash, once force drops to 30%, use saber strike to regenerate force)

Saber Strike(Only to regenerate force)

Assassinate (Target Below 30%)

Maul (Exploit Weakness Proc Only)

 

This is the basic rotation for madness. Reapply DoTs after you see the buffs fall off, or you will experience a drop in dps due to cutting off DoT ticks. Use Deathfield on cooldown and save raze procs until Deathfield comes off cooldown again. Death Field and DoTs go independently on their own durations/cooldowns, keep deathfield and these up off expiration or cooldown.

 

Deception Rotation (More Of a Priority List than Anything):

 

2X Voltaic Slash (>50% Force)

Shock (2X Induction Stacks)

Discharge

Maul (Exploit Weakness Proc Only)

Spinning Strike (Target Under 30%, Use this to build one Induction stack and the other with CS)

Saber Strike

 

Repeat Rotation as necessary, use blackout when low on force, also do not attempt to save surging charge stacks, use discharge off cooldown or you will experience a drop in dps. Use relics + adrenals in combination with recklessness to achieve maximum burst. Also, use breach first as wasting recklessness charges on chain shock is bad.

 

8/5/28 Rotation:

 

Same as madness rotation, apply crushing darkness whenever the next one comes off (Only with raze proc, do not hardcast crushing darkness) and keep discharge up. Deathfield off cooldown and only shock to replenish the buff.

 

ITEMIZATION

 

Itemizing with an assassin is very difficult as we have no passive accuracy/crit talents (apart from passive 3% Buff in madness) but the general consensus is to reach all softcaps.

 

Aim for 33% buffed in deception, and the passive madness buff will increase this to 36%. Aim for over 96% Accuracy, anywhere from 96% to 100% is fine. 75% surge, and stack the rest into power/willpower. Rip the mod and enhancement from the Black Hole Striker's MK-1 Boots (50 Black Hole Comms) for early minmaxing. Also buy the Striker's MK-1 Generator for 50 Comms as it is BiS for what you are able to buy with black hole commendations.

 

At the campaign gear level, aim for the mystic lightsaber, legs, and stalker chest/gloves and use the black hole force lord mk-1 headpiece. Rip the high willpower (60+ willpower) and replace them with the 41+ power mods (53 Willpower), or take lettered mods (Aptitude 26A/Mettle 26A) and replace with unlettered variants to perfectly minmax stats. The 4piece Stalker set bonus is very beneficial to our class, so be sure to take it as trash/VS will offer a massive increase to trash/VS dps.

 

When you start buying Dread Guard gear, be sure to aim for the stalker legs and headpiece first as they are the easiest pieces to minmax first, with gloves and boots coming seconds. The Dread Guard Stalker's Saberstaff is also a great Piece and shouldn't need much itemization when bought. Be careful when gearing in Dread Guard, as the set only has one piece with accuracy on it. Have a crafter create accuracy/power or crit/accuracy enhancements as it will take too much effort to farm raids to have all the perfectly minmaxed mods. When you are finished itemizations, you should be around:

 

1050 force bonus damage

36% melee crit (Madness/Balance)

75% surge

97% accuracy (add more if you prefer it)

1300+ mainhand damage

 

Use a Dread Guard Relic with a War Hero Relic or a Dread Guard Relic with a damage proc Relic (Dread Guard are much better than campaign, campaign relics are next to useless, as they have 47+ Passive power before augmenting gear.) Also remember, mainstat augments are most useful in most cases as they increase your crit percentages and have only a slight bonus damage loss from power augments. And finally do not use high endurance enhancements, they offer no benefit to dps whatsoever and should be the first modification replaced.

 

Relics should be used in different cases, but if you're not an avid PvPer then a proc damage relic and a boundless ages one is fine. Dread Guard Relics offer more power over a War Hero relic but is an "on-use" relic, so keep this in mind on whatever bosses need more burst or have rapid phase-changes.

 

Boss Fight Tips and Tricks

 

This is more of a category where assassins can use utility to their advantage. These will help you be an increased asset to the raid and help ease boss fights.

 

Tactics include:

 

Vanishing and Rezzing a tank/dps/healer to avoid wasting combat res (wait for all DoTs to fall off before attempting, also tactic will not work on certain boss fights.)

 

Taunts: When a tank is down you may switch to dark charge and use deflection and force shroud to mitigate as much damage as they can to avoid deaths in the raid. Only recommended for a short timeframe or else you will take excessive damage as a result.

 

Force Shroud/Resilience:

 

This ability can turn the tide of a whole encounter by completely negating the mechanics of a boss fight, such as lightning field on the dread guards, or Soa's lightning balls, and Fabricator's grenades.

 

Thanks For Reading!

 

Thanks for reading this guide guys, feedback would be much appreciated or if anyone can notify me of mistakes or something I can add to the guide to improve it, that would be great.

 

"The Dark Side Is Strong In You, My Apprentice. Use your hatred to fuel your conquest for glory!"

Edited February 7, 2013 by THEFERRARICARGUY
Updated Rotations

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

Both topics (Here and Assassin forums) have been updated for Project-less builds. Thanks to Dierdrea for pointing this out!

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

Bump!

[anstalt]

When I'm specced balance, I tend to go for higher crit rating that you advocate (I am for 40% fully buffed in balance). I found I wasn't really hitting DR that much on crit rating as the DR curve for crit is quite forgiving, but my DPS definitely gained a boost along with self-healing from DoT crits. The highest balance parses I have seen also seem to advocate having ~40% crit chance as the people who are getting 1800+ on balance parses all have extremely high crit chances on the majority of their skills.

 

 

Also, your infiltration rotation isn't quite correct, though it is a good start for beginners. Infiltration is more a priority list, rather than a rotation:

 

1) Force Breach - use on cooldown, no exceptions

2) Project (with 2 stacks of CS)

3) Shadow Strike (proc about to wear off)

4) Spinning Strike

5) Shadow Strike (only with proc)

6) Clairvoyant Strike (only when force > 50)

7) Saber Strike

 

Reason for putting Shadow Strike in the list twice is you should aim to use it every single time you get the proc, but generally you should use spinning strike first. The exception is when ur find weakness proc is about to wear off, then u should use shadow strike before spinning strike.

 

Step 6) in the priority list should also be reinforced to new / aspiring infiltration shadows. Only using CS when I had 50% force or more made the single biggest difference my sustained DPS at endgame. This change along added over 100dps to my rotation!

 

 

Finally, Force Potency in Infiltration: use force breach before project! If you have upheaval (extra proc on project) this can often use up the second stack of force potency which is a big waste in comparison to getting a crit on breach.

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

When I'm specced balance, I tend to go for higher crit rating that you advocate (I am for 40% fully buffed in balance). I found I wasn't really hitting DR that much on crit rating as the DR curve for crit is quite forgiving, but my DPS definitely gained a boost along with self-healing from DoT crits. The highest balance parses I have seen also seem to advocate having ~40% crit chance as the people who are getting 1800+ on balance parses all have extremely high crit chances on the majority of their skills.

 

 

Also, your infiltration rotation isn't quite correct, though it is a good start for beginners. Infiltration is more a priority list, rather than a rotation:

 

1) Force Breach - use on cooldown, no exceptions

2) Project (with 2 stacks of CS)

3) Shadow Strike (proc about to wear off)

4) Spinning Strike

5) Shadow Strike (only with proc)

6) Clairvoyant Strike (only when force > 50)

7) Saber Strike

 

Reason for putting Shadow Strike in the list twice is you should aim to use it every single time you get the proc, but generally you should use spinning strike first. The exception is when ur find weakness proc is about to wear off, then u should use shadow strike before spinning strike.

 

Step 6) in the priority list should also be reinforced to new / aspiring infiltration shadows. Only using CS when I had 50% force or more made the single biggest difference my sustained DPS at endgame. This change along added over 100dps to my rotation!

 

 

Finally, Force Potency in Infiltration: use force breach before project! If you have upheaval (extra proc on project) this can often use up the second stack of force potency which is a big waste in comparison to getting a crit on breach.

 

I prefer 37% crit as force synergy will bump me up to 46%, but I wholeheartedly agree on the infiltration rotation, but on most fights where one would use infiltration, you do get the chance to regenerate your force, so in all intents, for fights such as Terror From Beyond, you get many chances to pool your force, such as tentacle phases, irregularities, anomalies, so being dependent on this 50%< CS is recommended, but not necessarily needed. I will update the topic to remind people on breach before project though, but since most boss fights are tuned for madness, it's recommended that you'd use it rather than Infiltration except for certain fights like TFB, Operator IX, Fabricator, Kephess (Denova) but people do have preferences and I can't change that, so yes, I will be recommending your changes in my guide. Thanks for the constructive criticism as it helps me help other people out with their endeavours. And I'll be more mindful to not forget to mention anything

[anstalt]

I prefer 37% crit as force synergy will bump me up to 46%, but I wholeheartedly agree on the infiltration rotation, but on most fights where one would use infiltration, you do get the chance to regenerate your force, so in all intents, for fights such as Terror From Beyond, you get many chances to pool your force, such as tentacle phases, irregularities, anomalies, so being dependent on this 50%< CS is recommended, but not necessarily needed. I will update the topic to remind people on breach before project though, but since most boss fights are tuned for madness, it's recommended that you'd use it rather than Infiltration except for certain fights like TFB, Operator IX, Fabricator, Kephess (Denova) but people do have preferences and I can't change that, so yes, I will be recommending your changes in my guide. Thanks for the constructive criticism as it helps me help other people out with their endeavours. And I'll be more mindful to not forget to mention anything

 

No worries dude, always happy to help!

 

Only other thing that *may* be worth adding to the guide is some of the top parses from shadows and assassins in a variety of builds. This certainly helped me, for example, in building my shadow as I saw the top shadows (1850+dps) in balance spec had insane crit chances in comparison to my own so whilst the skill usage was exactly the same between my parses and theirs, I was severely lacking in crit. Having made a change to crit, my damage is now more comparable.

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

No worries dude, always happy to help!

 

Only other thing that *may* be worth adding to the guide is some of the top parses from shadows and assassins in a variety of builds. This certainly helped me, for example, in building my shadow as I saw the top shadows (1850+dps) in balance spec had insane crit chances in comparison to my own so whilst the skill usage was exactly the same between my parses and theirs, I was severely lacking in crit. Having made a change to crit, my damage is now more comparable.

 

Indeed i should, gotta start making some of my own too haha. gonna update the thread soon

[ckoneful]

Crit DRs by the Rating, not the percentage. You can't say "Get this % and you're good" since the more Willpower you have the more Crit you will have without crit rating. I know for most secondaries they hit a hefty DR point around 300 rating.

 

Also, Willpower does not give a higher bonus damage than Power. It's .20 from Willpower and .23 from Power IIRC.

 

You should test and figure out the best relic combination as well. What you have written there for relics is entirely confusing.

 

Your "Itemization" section could use more spacing, it looks like a wall of text.

Edited January 25, 2013 by ckoneful

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

Crit DRs by the Rating, not the percentage. You can't say "Get this % and you're good" since the more Willpower you have the more Crit you will have without crit rating. I know for most secondaries they hit a hefty DR point around 300 rating.

 

Also, Willpower does not give a higher bonus damage than Power. It's .20 from Willpower and .23 from Power IIRC.

 

You should test and figure out the best relic combination as well. What you have written there for relics is entirely confusing.

 

Your "Itemization" section could use more spacing, it looks like a wall of text.

 

Ugh man, I must have been half asleep when I wrote that section, I'm gonna fix it soon haha. I promise.

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

Broken Links have been fixed!

[Nieky]

Great guide, I just have a couple of questions.

 

Currently I'm almost full Rakkata, except for the following:

 

Head Piece - Black Hole Mk-1 Striker

Chest Piece - Columi Shell with Black Hole Mk-1 Striker Armoring, Mod, Enhancement

Legs - Columi

Feet - Columi

 

I'm not entirely sure how to proceed here. I currently have approx 100 BH comms to spend, but if i replace the legs or the feet, i lose the set bonus that comes with the Columi shells. Should i be looking at buying the Campaign armorings? Or is there going to be a period here where i don't benefit from the set bonus. In other words, should i be going full BH and not worry about the set bonus until i start to buy Campaign armorings?

Edited January 29, 2013 by Nieky

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

Great guide, I just have a couple of questions.

 

Currently I'm almost full Rakkata, except for the following:

 

Head Piece - Black Hole Mk-1 Striker

Chest Piece - Columi Shell with Black Hole Mk-1 Striker Armoring, Mod, Enhancement

Legs - Columi

Feet - Columi

 

I'm not entirely sure how to proceed here. I currently have approx 100 BH comms to spend, but if i replace the legs or the feet, i lose the set bonus that comes with the Columi shells. Should i be looking at buying the Campaign armorings? Or is there going to be a period here where i don't benefit from the set bonus. In other words, should i be going full BH and not worry about the set bonus until i start to buy Campaign armorings?

 

You should buy some of the Striker MK-1 Boots, and rip the mods into your columi pieces, that way you'll retain the set bonus but will have the stat boost of the Black Hole gear.

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

Shameless bump to keep this at the top of the forums. While the guide may not be useful to some people, it at least gives newcomers an idea where to start for sith assassin dps.

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

Madness rotation has been updated to a more dps-beneficial rotation.

[Frerbear]

I too have to disagree with the 37% Crit Percent claim made here. I am a firm believer in using the rating, not the percent, and I have the DPS to back it up. Do you have any parses that show the lower crit % is the right way to go?

[THEFERRARICARGUY]

I too have to disagree with the 37% Crit Percent claim made here. I am a firm believer in using the rating, not the percent, and I have the DPS to back it up. Do you have any parses that show the lower crit % is the right way to go?

 

No, I don't actually, since a few days ago I've been making parses using 39% crit buffed, but haven't gotten around with the lower crit number yet. Once my internet is fixed I'll try making a new parse with the different stats.

[WooduckAUS]

No, I don't actually, since a few days ago I've been making parses using 39% crit buffed, but haven't gotten around with the lower crit number yet. Once my internet is fixed I'll try making a new parse with the different stats.

 

I mean this with all sincerity, I would like someone who is honest instead of trying to prove they are right, show *consistent* higher results with low crit/high power.

 

I could understand a low crit/high power build getting extremely *lucky* on a run, and hitting really good crits. Higher than what is average for your build and giving a one off really good result. Obviously with i higher base damage and a lucky run with crits, you could post higher results. If this took you 100 goes, than obviously this is far from the norm. BUT, if you could consistently show higher parses, than i would be really interested in seeing them.

 

From all the time i've dedicated to my dummy and all the different builds that i have run, i just don't see any consistent results from a lower crit/higher power number. My best and most consistent result comes from ~300 crit. I would never tell anyone that this is how it has to be, if you do it any other way you are wrong!! I would just like to see honest results and conversation about the higher power builds. I read EVERYWHERE how low crit/high power is the only way to play, but i have never seen any results backing this theory. Please someone post some results, equivalent/higher than mine showing that high power is the way to go.

 

I look forward to these results/discussion.

[anstalt]

From all the time i've dedicated to my dummy and all the different builds that i have run, i just don't see any consistent results from a lower crit/higher power number. My best and most consistent result comes from ~300 crit. I would never tell anyone that this is how it has to be, if you do it any other way you are wrong!! I would just like to see honest results and conversation about the higher power builds. I read EVERYWHERE how low crit/high power is the only way to play, but i have never seen any results backing this theory. Please someone post some results, equivalent/higher than mine showing that high power is the way to go.

 

Low crit / high power is the outcome of extensive parsing before black hole and above came out, i.e. min-maxed rakata gear. With rakata (unaugmented at that) the number of points you have to play with is every limited and so if you went for 300 crit rating you ended up with virtually no power at all. Combine that with only a rating 140 hilt and the DPS ended up being low. Conversely, swopping everything to power instead of crit when at rakata level resulted in consistantly higher parses.

 

 

However, due to augments plus much higher stat allocations with black hole and dread guard gear, you no longer have to give up anything. you can hit the soft-cap for crit without sacrificing much power and so now the best and most consistant DPS comes from hitting that soft cap and then going in to power.

 

 

So, I expect that is where a lot of people get the low crit / high power thing from: it was "true" back in the day! Additionally, it remains relatively true in pvp where burst is king so you can forgive people for not knowing the perfect balance of stats at the moment.

[WooduckAUS]

With rakata (unaugmented at that) the number of points you have to play with is every limited and so if you went for 300 crit rating you ended up with virtually no power at all. Combine that with only a rating 140 hilt and the DPS ended up being low. Conversely, swopping everything to power instead of crit when at rakata level resulted in consistantly higher parses.

 

Sorry, you're right, i didn't mention in what context i was referring to 300. I'm talking full DG 63's. I agree completely, reaching 300 in rakata will do more harm than good. Its all about keeping the balance as you gear up. In 61's the balance might be around the 260-270 mark, in rakata it will probably be under the 250 mark... (not sure exactly). Then as you gear up, your crit rating increases to balance out the power. As you move forward with gear its all about the balancing act for the gear you have.

 

Sorry about any confusion from my first post. I would definitely not recommend hitting 300 in anything other than full 63's. But if you are purposefully sitting around 30-35% in full 63's, from what i've seen with my own testing, you are gimping yourself of dps. I currently sit a touch under 40% melee in full 63's and have not managed any higher results from lowering (or raising) my crit.