Insane Question

[MasterSatori]

Is a Shadow using only 1 lightsaber and a focus in the off hand still able to deliver better-than-sage DPS?

 

I want to play one for theme as a powerful force user (and focus on force powers) - but have noticed most abilities require the 2-handed blade.

 

Scrap it and give in or is there a way to make it work without horrific damage loss?

 

Thoughts? Builds? Beer(please)?

[SirGusto]

if you don't wield the dble bladed saber, you lose pretty much all your damage. You cant use your stances, with no stance, you lose breach and all that a stance provides. Your pretty much stuck with project, FiB, and some melee strikes.

 

On a side note, shadow is a pretty powerful force user if set up right. You could kill everything from a 10m range and not use melee. Just not as force efficient as a proper rotation.

[Kitru]

if you don't wield the dble bladed saber, you lose pretty much all your damage. You cant use your stances, with no stance, you lose breach and all that a stance provides.

 

Actually, while you can't *activate* the Techniques without a DBLS, you can maintain them without having one equipped no problem. You do, however, lose Force Breach, which can be problematic for all specs since that attack explicitly requires a DBLS to use.

 

Without a DBLS, you're never going to manage "better than Sage DPS". Keep in mind, in optimized BiS, Shadows are barely pushing 1.9k DPS atm, which is pretty much tied with Sage DPS in the "at least we're not Scoundrels" tier of damage. By purposefully reducing your damage by using an inferior weapon (DBLS deal 20% more base weapon damage than standard LSs, which means you're losing roughly 5-10% of your total damage with melee attacks) and then forgoing the ability to use Force Breach and Shadow Strike (both require DBLS and both are integral parts of DPS Shadow rotations/priorities for max DPS), you're pretty much guaranteeing that you're not going to reach appreciable levels of damage: Force Breach is your hardest hitting DoT as Balance and Shadow Strike is pretty much the most cost effective attack you've got (thanks to Infil Tactics). Not being able to use them is going to, at best, put you at ~75% of your total DPS capabilities otherwise, which means that, rather than doing "better-than-Sage" DPS, you'll be struggling to do "better-than-Scoundrel".