Bilirubin Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 (edited) Just resubbed after nearly a year away. Nice to see a few familiar faces still around. Expect nobody remembers me though, and that is ok! So, what did I miss? I see we can't tank NiM but Kitru has the devs working on this. Anything really important? How terrible is my Rakata/BH gear? Edited July 11, 2013 by Bilirubin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xinika Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 (edited) Just resubbed after nearly a year away. Nice to see a few familiar faces still around. Expect nobody remembers me though, and that is ok! So, what did I miss? I see we can't tank NiM but Kitru has the devs working on this. Anything really important? How terrible is my Columi/BH gear? In PvE, Shadow tanks are not exactly on par with the other two: VG/Guardian For more direction information, refer to here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=641620 The DPS is also seemingly middle of the pack - both Balance and Infiltration. Still not as good as a Mara or GS, so no particular reason to pick a Shadow over pures. As far as PvP goes, we are in a solid spot. Not bad and not exceptionally over the top. KC is performing moderately well for its job but more as a staller. Infiltration can be used both in mid fight or off node and or node guarding. So again, we're variable players. The major gripe we have right now is Balance's horrendous performance in PvP. The damage is all fluff damage and there is truly no kill power. In addition, they removed Insta-FL, so the utility of the 23/1/17 hybrid or Balance tree in general has taken a sharp fall. Overall, we're in a solid spot. Another thing is Bolster. Your gear will most likely be bolstered, so doing PvP from 30-54 will not be as bad as you think. Edited July 11, 2013 by Xinika Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted July 11, 2013 Author Share Posted July 11, 2013 (edited) Thanks a bunch Xinika! So, basically, our DPS is still in the same spot. I used to love the balance-hybrid tank for PvP but expected changes like this might have happened. Probably best to go back to a pure tank to level to 55 then. Man with all of the new gear and talents I feel like such a n00b again. EDIT: also thanks for the tip about bolster Edited July 11, 2013 by Bilirubin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitru Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 Expect nobody remembers me though, and that is ok! I remember you! So, what did I miss? I see we can't tank NiM but Kitru has the devs working on this. You have *no* idea how hard we had to work to get them to where we are now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted July 11, 2013 Author Share Posted July 11, 2013 I'm sure. I have only made it through the first few pages of that thread. And I don't mean to say you did it all by yourself; I'm sure it was a huge group effort (I saw reference to one person who sacrificed their posting ability to the cause) and I do not wish to seem to exclude anybody by what I just said! (And I am chuffed to be remembered by anyone. Thanks; appreciated! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitru Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 (I saw reference to one person who sacrificed their posting ability to the cause) That was Leafy_Bug (much props to him). The forum seppuku I referred to wasn't a permanent ban but a shorter-than-average temp ban due to spam posting a bunch of links to the various Shadow spikiness threads in every non-class forum to specifically get the attention of the community team. It was definitely an act of self-sacrifice to get attention and demonstrate the terrible state of affairs. Thankfully, everything that's happened as part of that has gotten the Community Team to actually take some action to address the inadequate level of attention the class forums have historically gotten. And people wonder why we Shadows think the world revolves around us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted July 11, 2013 Author Share Posted July 11, 2013 And people wonder why we Shadows think the world revolves around us. Having all those rocks revolving around is probably a contributing factor as well. Been hunting through the forums and browsing the new vendors. The basic 146 gear is still not quite a match for my fully modded Rakata/BH, although in some secondary stats its surprisingly strong. I assume the KC rotation is pretty much the same as it ever way? I also see to avoid listening to anything Noxxic says--what are reliable sites? Since my guild left TOR and went to WoW (returned for them, me for the first time) I power leveled up a character, raided a bit, but ultimately the community just wore me down and I quit after only about 4 months. Have been playing nothing ever since. Lurking about here again made me realize it needn't be that way. Thanks again all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancaglon Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 (edited) Been hunting through the forums and browsing the new vendors. The basic 146 gear is still not quite a match for my fully modded Rakata/BH, although in some secondary stats its surprisingly strong. Your existing gear is fine for getting you to 55 and, quite probably, for you to start doing 55 HM's, although I'd recommend respecing as DPS for a couple of days to get a feel for the mechanics of the new 55 HMs. Save up the Basic commendations you'll get getting through Makeb and doing Section X, and buy "Vial of Stabilized Isotope-5". You should have enough of them when you hit 55 and complete story mode TfB and Scum and Villainy, which will give you the materials to get at least one 72 hilt and 72 armoring crafted. Edited July 12, 2013 by Ancaglon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted July 12, 2013 Author Share Posted July 12, 2013 Excellent suggestions, greatly appreciated! Especially that for going DPS until getting a handle on the HM mechanics. Nothing worse than a tank not knowing encounter mechanics. I'd probably even deserve a little of the abuse players would heap on each other in WoW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted July 15, 2013 Author Share Posted July 15, 2013 (edited) Oh man am I rusty. Made it through the first story quest chain and weekly staged quest on Makeb only to discover my slow time bind was actually triggering force slow I was thinking I wasn't getting enough procs for tkt. Thing is that I can just let a gold wail on me while I fiddle with config settings and Nadia will deal with it promptly and I will still make it to 50% health. Kids, don't try this at home. Year long hiatuses are bad for your play. Edited July 15, 2013 by Bilirubin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xinika Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 ...hiatuses are bad for your play. Sometimes, a break is exactly what you need to improve your gameplay. Spoken from experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted July 19, 2013 Author Share Posted July 19, 2013 True enough. Things seem to be coming back now, slowly adding the levels on now. Really enjoying the new story too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted August 2, 2013 Author Share Posted August 2, 2013 55! Had hardware issues that kept me out of the game for the past two weeks...now to gear up for HMs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwestone Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 In PvE, Shadow tanks are not exactly on par with the other two: VG/Guardian The DPS is also seemingly middle of the pack - both Balance and Infiltration. If by middle of the pack you mean dead last... Then yeah, middle of the pack. The devs have a vendetta against our class, and I believe its a personal thing from Austin Peckinpaugh. I am not sure which one of you abused him as a child, but he is taking it out on all of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitru Posted August 2, 2013 Share Posted August 2, 2013 If by middle of the pack you mean dead last... Then yeah, middle of the pack. The problem I've always had with determining the place of Shadows in comparative DPS is that there aren't a lot of Shadow DPS out there, so that there are inevitably fewer truly skilled Shadow DPS throwing up parses to compare/analyze. On top of that, there's *always* the question of whether the top parses are benefiting from the armor debuff since you can't ever see it, which means that, even if you try to account for the unaccounted for variables as part of a dummy parse, there's always that little bit of questionability as to whether it was there or not and how much it screws up the numbers: the best parses can vary between excellent at 3.1k DPS, if there wasn't an armor debuff present, or terrible at 2.9k, if there *was* an armor debuff present. Looking at effective performance in raid conditions, Shadows are the *last* but it's not *horribly* last. The top parses are *just* behind Guardians, VGs, and some others that escape me right now while the average tends to be about the same (not that those parses ever tend to be particularly good). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted August 2, 2013 Author Share Posted August 2, 2013 I just wish the Balance-Tank hybrid was still viable Your existing gear is fine for getting you to 55 and, quite probably, for you to start doing 55 HM's, although I'd recommend respecing as DPS for a couple of days to get a feel for the mechanics of the new 55 HMs. Save up the Basic commendations you'll get getting through Makeb and doing Section X, and buy "Vial of Stabilized Isotope-5". You should have enough of them when you hit 55 and complete story mode TfB and Scum and Villainy, which will give you the materials to get at least one 72 hilt and 72 armoring crafted. If you could walk me though this process a little that would be swell. Buy the isotope-5, somehow convert it into a hilt (presumably through crafting since I am Artiface?) and armor? Also what should I spend all these planetary comms on? All of my companions are in at least Tionese quality gear, and the often used ones in Columi/Rakata, so the Makeb comms are mostly useless AFAICT The classic comms have gotten me a new shield, but the gear is otherwise pretty close to comparable to what I am already wearing (non augmented, but still, that Rakata set bonus is hard to give up). Finally, on the topic of augmentation, where are my diminishing returns points on the primary and secondary stats? Is there a thread somewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilirubin Posted August 18, 2013 Author Share Posted August 18, 2013 Ran my first op since coming back last night, Terror from Beyond. Went surprisingly well in my 66 level modded gear. Got a couple of drops too! Was pleased that I might have changed an opinion of two about what a Shadow can bring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missandei Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 (edited) Just resubbed after nearly a year away. . Anything really important? How terrible is my Rakata/BH gear? http://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/wiki/major_changes http://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/wiki/returning_player Edited August 18, 2013 by Missandei Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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