Really struggling with Assassin...

[TzhaarFury]

Hello guys, I came to SWTOR in 2012 but left to due to personal reasons and I returned about 2-3 months ago. My Assassin was the first character I started but when I came back I made a smuggler alt which became my main and my Assassin fell into the shadows, however recently I decided to give him a bash again, and leveled from 20-30 however I am severely struggling with this character so much so that I become frustrated and have to log off.

 

Now on my Slinger I top damage easily in 55 non-ranked but I can barely hit 200K in a full Void/Alderaan game. Now I have asked about and people have told me Node guarding is where an Assassin needs to stick to as i'll just get mowed down if I go into the fray, however even when node guarding I seem to fail. I'll get the drop on a target, however I'll be down to 1/5th of my force bar after Discharge + Shock + Thrash which leaves me with no wriggle room. Force management is probably my biggest struggle dealing with this account as I seem to always be out of force in the most crucial moments.

 

The tree I use is darkness and currently I'm like 3 - 20 - 0 and I'm geared using willpower mods + armoring. If anyone could give me any tips and whatnot on how to make myself better because I love the play style and look of the Assassin and on my Slinger I often see Shadows pumping out high levels of damage with one putting down 1.2K DPS.

 

Thanks for all the help guys.

[sithBracer]

Use deception tree or a hybrid. Full darkness is ... meh.

 

Assassin isn't that great in lowbies. They become much better around mid 40s. When you get to 55 make sure you augment your gear.

Edited May 8, 2014 by sithBracer

[Aetrus]

The tree I use is darkness and currently I'm like 3 - 20 - 0 and I'm geared using willpower mods + armoring. If anyone could give me any tips and whatnot on how to make myself better because I love the play style and look of the Assassin and on my Slinger I often see Shadows pumping out high levels of damage with one putting down 1.2K DPS.

 

Thanks for all the help guys.

This is what I'm not understanding. You said you're using Darkness, but you post 3-20-0. That middle tree, what you're mostly spec'd into, is Deception. I haven't leveled a sin in almost a year and a half, but next level consider spec'ing something like this. Run in Surging Charge, not Dark Charge. Try to use Thrash once or twice before you Shock, it will help you manage your Force by granting Induction stacks. Don't Maul without Duplicity being proc'd, that will help your Force as well.

[Kaos_KidSWTOR]

I'm gonna give you some advice against the crowd. Play Madness spec, it's gonna get some sweet buffs and will perform at the level of most other Melee DPS.