Krea's Shadow/Assassin PvP Guide

[Azzryn]

I've been playing darkness with high endurance dps mods now since I hit 60 on my sin last week, I asked you a few questions on twitter if ha remember.

 

Just wanted to chime in here and say I love the spec, damage is still there and definitely enough to be noticeable pressure while having all the pvp tools of a sin tank. I'll be fully min/maxxed today or tomorrow(only need a few more 174 enhancements, and to trade dark reaver stalker saber for survivor)

 

I'm currently at 53800 hp(stimmed, buffs) 76% surge, 17.7% crit and ~1460 power. Recklessness shock crits around 7-8k. Maul 6-8k, and my average dep volts crit for 5k now. And I definitely still feel incredibly tanky. Absolutely love the spec.

Bonus: doing regs in this exact gear, but deception spec, is hilariously fun. Very bursty, but 52k+ hp makes you far less glass cannony

 

Thanks for the spec idea/guide!

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Glad it's working out for you

[CarbonDust]

Hello OP. I got a quick question, for yolo solo ranked que, are you still running hatred with success after the lacerate spread change? or have you gonna full deception for solo? also, if you are hatred are you even using lacerate and at what point. ( after discharge and creeping or after crushing darkeness ect.) thank you for your time.

[Struglinrunt]

I think (hope) you are still replying to your guide.

 

Why do you choose Overkill augments over Willpower augments for dps?

Edited August 21, 2015 by Struglinrunt

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

I think (hope) you are still replying to your guide.

 

Why do you choose Overkill augments over Willpower augments for dps?

 

Willpower for Hatred/Serenity because it increases your crit chance slightly and will help your dots out on multiple targets to crit.

 

Overkill for Deception/Infiltration because you want as much raw power output as you can get since your burst windows rely on Recklessness, which is basically an autocrit, making crit rating somewhat moot.

[EmilmcUgly]

Hope this question hasn't been asked - I tried to search the thread for it but didn't find it. Why force master's gear instead of striker? I haven't done the math, but the stats are all in power/surge/critical like the force master's, and striker uses a saberstaff, where force master has a single bladed saber. Which, I know, probably doesn't matter unless you're just one of those people who wants the whole matching set.

 

Does it matter which one?

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Hope this question hasn't been asked - I tried to search the thread for it but didn't find it. Why force master's gear instead of striker? I haven't done the math, but the stats are all in power/surge/critical like the force master's, and striker uses a saberstaff, where force master has a single bladed saber. Which, I know, probably doesn't matter unless you're just one of those people who wants the whole matching set.

 

Does it matter which one?

 

You buy the lightsaber for the hilt/mod/enhancement that is already Best in Slot, then rip them out of the single bladed lightsaber and put them into a custom lightsaber.

 

Same with other pieces that are Force Master instead of Stalker. You want the Stalker armorings, but if a Force Master piece has BiS mod/enhancement, you should buy that and then just rip out the mod/ehancement and move it into new adaptive gear with a stalker set bonus piece.

[jordhanus]

Well today I remade my Shadow tank to your description (need 1 more implant), and I must say, Project and CascDebr for 4-5k each is nice, not to mention similar damage for Force Breach

 

Maybe later today I'll try ranked

[jordhanus]

To follow up, I'm now fully geared as you said, excepting the hilt.

 

I notice our stats are pretty similar (duh), although I have a datacron deficit on you. Atm:

endurance 4784

willpower 2528

power 1491

surge 825

 

However, how comes I fall short here:

damae (pri) 1568-1893

dam red 37,82%

armor 7768

 

Is that fully because of datacrons and hilt, or am I missing something else?

[EmilmcUgly]

You buy the lightsaber for the hilt/mod/enhancement that is already Best in Slot, then rip them out of the single bladed lightsaber and put them into a custom lightsaber.

 

Same with other pieces that are Force Master instead of Stalker. You want the Stalker armorings, but if a Force Master piece has BiS mod/enhancement,

 

It doesn't seem like either one is BIS - they have the same EN and WP stats, but they present choices between crit/power/alacrity etc. I guess I'm inclined to get as much crit as possible but wonder what you think. I'll go back and read some of your previous posts to see if you already said this.

 

you should buy that and then just rip out the mod/ehancement and move it into new adaptive gear with a stalker set bonus piece.

 

So you're forgoing the ability enhancer you get from a full set? The full stalker set gives you an automatic crit on maul after using thrash, which may not come up too much but is, at least, something.

 

By the way, I really appreciate all this. Very helpful.

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

To follow up, I'm now fully geared as you said, excepting the hilt.

 

I notice our stats are pretty similar (duh), although I have a datacron deficit on you. Atm:

endurance 4784

willpower 2528

power 1491

surge 825

 

However, how comes I fall short here:

damae (pri) 1568-1893

dam red 37,82%

armor 7768

 

Is that fully because of datacrons and hilt, or am I missing something else?

 

It's probably the hilt and you need to be using a shield, not a generator. I know you never specifically said you were using a generator, just saying it just incase

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

It doesn't seem like either one is BIS - they have the same EN and WP stats, but they present choices between crit/power/alacrity etc. I guess I'm inclined to get as much crit as possible but wonder what you think. I'll go back and read some of your previous posts to see if you already said this.

 

 

 

So you're forgoing the ability enhancer you get from a full set? The full stalker set gives you an automatic crit on maul after using thrash, which may not come up too much but is, at least, something.

 

By the way, I really appreciate all this. Very helpful.

 

I mistyped, i meant Survivor set bonus, not stalker.

[EmilmcUgly]

That's an awful lot of commendations to earn.

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

That's an awful lot of commendations to earn.

 

It turns out to be around 17-19k commendations, so yes, it is a lot, but nothing that can't be achieved in a week of leisure warzone play time, or even 2-3 days of hard core warzone play time. It's much better than it used to be. It used to be about a month or 2 of leisure play time and 2-3 weeks of hard core play time, in ranked arenas. In regs, you'd be looking at a couple months of playtime.

[Skallagar]

I've actually been playing tank spec with stalker gear mostly because I'm transitioning from deception and I already had the gear. the 2 pc is obviously worthless but otherwise it's not half bad in regs. Thinking of just trying to add some more endurance and power to hybrid more to the damage side. I main a marauder so I mostly play the sin when I wanna have a little more suitability/cc.

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Added a new video to the guide with Force Cloak mechanics.

 

Check it out here.

[AchillesStark]

Enough time has elapsed now to evaluate what has happened to serenity now that dot spread was moved to melee range. Whats the overall balance between serenity vs infil (i.e. how many players are playing each)?

Im thinking about giving infil a try again after playing serenity for a while. While serenity is very solid, it just doesnt have that insane burst shadows used to have when you pop out of stealth and destroy half of the other players health before they can react.

[PrincessNuri]

I myself am in tank spec. Hopefully the DPS will improve.

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Enough time has elapsed now to evaluate what has happened to serenity now that dot spread was moved to melee range. Whats the overall balance between serenity vs infil (i.e. how many players are playing each)?

Im thinking about giving infil a try again after playing serenity for a while. While serenity is very solid, it just doesnt have that insane burst shadows used to have when you pop out of stealth and destroy half of the other players health before they can react.

 

I was just discussing this yesterday with another one of the Top 3 Assassin players, Fig. Ultimately we disagreed on it's status. His opinion was that it just doesn't shine as much as it used to due to the range nerfs and the lack of burst. He also thinks the DoT damage is fluff damage in 3 dps/healer matches. He feels the control that Deception gets is more valuable than the raw damage of hatred. He also dislikes how squishy hatred is.

 

I feel that Hatred is as powerful as ever now if you play it well. Yes it's squishy, but that's mitigated by the ability to do damage from mid/short range, which comes with the perks of being able to Line of Sight, which is 100% damage reduction, all while getting healed a little bit at a time from your dots. 1 full rotation from Hatred will give you 20% health back in self heals, so every 15 second rotation equates to about 20% life regenerated. This is hugely over looked because you have to combine this regenerated life with Line of Sight and elusiveness to get the most out of the heals. Many players simply can't, or won't do this.

 

Overall, opinions vary, but it truly comes down to personal play style. I prefer the skill set of Assassin over Sorcerer, but I prefer the ability to kite and do damage from range of Sorcerer over Assassin, so Hatred Assassin is my happy medium. In my opinion, more games can be won from playing Hatred spec with extreme consistency and well. I have beaten operatives in Hatred, this is something that should NEVER happen, and this is what I mean about consistency, you have to immediately realize your enemy's mistakes and exploit them when you play Hatred since you are extremely squishy without DCD's. I'm of the opinion that Deception is more forgiving to mistakes since there is so much more control in the spec, it gives you small windows of breathing room to regroup your thoughts and execute.

 

So play what you're most comfortable with. Opinions vary, but personally, I still play Hatred over Deception but it's just personal preference.

 

Edit: About burst, Hatred still has burst, it just has a larger set up and ramp up time. Because of this, you must be a good player and plan accordingly, in advance, around your burst, to unload it all at the proper time when it's most required. I can make a video of what this means later.

Edited September 7, 2015 by Jinre_the_Jedi

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Also, on Harbinger, 9 out of 10 sins are playing Deception in solo ranked instead of Hatred. Keep that in mind.

[allexj]

I myself am in tank spec. Hopefully the DPS will improve.

 

i switched to this gearing and it did improve, but its still nearly impossible to go 1v1 with a Focus Guardian or a vary good, infiltration shadow they just do to much damage and we have no way to recover without heals

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

i switched to this gearing and it did improve, but its still nearly impossible to go 1v1 with a Focus Guardian or a vary good, infiltration shadow they just do to much damage and we have no way to recover without heals

 

To be fair, a dps in dps gear should do more dps fundamentally than a tank in dps gear. The trade off of a tank is damage for survivability.

[PrincessNuri]

Krea I have a question about the gearing up. So pretty much the dark reaver gear webusebis DPS gear? I forgot what stats your recommended gear gives but as a tank I have survivor. So before I go for full dark reaver survivor, I need to know...isn't DPS hearing known as skank tanking?

 

Would your setup for a tank in ranked be that much better than full absorb tank gear? If any other sin tank that used to PvP in full tank gear switched to DPS gear and tested it out, pls let me know how the survivability is compared to full tank gear.

 

Don't want to sound like a doubter Krea but a few months ago someone told me to go full tank or go home.

Edited September 9, 2015 by PrincessNuri

[linwei]

Krea I have a question about the gearing up. So pretty much the dark reaver gear webusebis DPS gear? I forgot what stats your recommended gear gives but as a tank I have survivor. So before I go for full dark reaver survivor, I need to know...isn't DPS hearing known as skank tanking?

 

Would your setup for a tank in ranked be that much better than full absorb tank gear? If any other sin tank that used to PvP in full tank gear switched to DPS gear and tested it out, pls let me know how the survivability is compared to full tank gear.

 

Don't want to sound like a doubter Krea but a few months ago someone told me to go full tank or go home.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=825209

 

Hey, I have some screenshots of those too, I'll just need to find them. The match was against 2 sorcs (Hatred), 1 pt tank and 1 sorc healer. I did 1.4k DPS and doubled the enemy tanks protection. The sorcs realized that I was in dps gear and tunneled me and I ended up taking about 800k damage or so and at times it was a struggle, but that's where skill kicks in and you just have to LoS them to mitigate damage.

 

I've found that with this build it works EXTREMELY well with tank/heal/dps ranked matches because you have enough damage on your own to completely obliterate any unguarded target. You can essentially have your dps focus 1 target while you as a tank focus another entirely. The damage you do is freaking insane and forces their tank to swap to your target to guard them, but when he does that, your dps can just destroy whichever target they are on.

 

I've also found that the loss in tank stats is literally unnoticeable. While you lose a hefty chunk of defense/shield/absorb, you still have enough to shield frequently, defend various white attacks and still pump out amazing damage. Not only that, but your HP is only 2k lower than if you were fully min/maxed Dark Reaver in tank gear, so the damage boost more than greatly makes up for it. Not to mention that the best form of mitigation is LoS, so when you run this gear set you will have to be MUCH more aware of where you're standing and who is or isn't focusing you.

 

In tank/3dps matches, I've found this build to work even better since you essentially now have a tank and 4 dps on your team. In many matches last night, not only did I outprotect the enemy tank, as well as took more damage than the enemy tank, but I also out damaged both my dps as well as the enemy dps. This is easily achievable because you can literally neuter the enemy dps's damage by taunting them off cooldown as well as keeping them controlled and on the defensive with your vast array of cc/slows and pure pressure from damage.

 

Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this build. It requires more kiting and LoS'ing so that you take the least damage possible from range classes, but the damage it offers is just too great. I'm honestly expecting this to get nerfed soon, but *fingers crossed* let's hope not.

 

Oh by the way, Depredating volts on the move is simply ridiculous with this build. I can effectively chase down enemy dps who try to kite out of range of it and when I use it with recklessness I can chase people down up to 30m range and each tick of DV deals 5-6k damage giving you a total of 20-24k damage in one ability, it's simply ridiculous.

Edited September 10, 2015 by linwei

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Krea I have a question about the gearing up. So pretty much the dark reaver gear webusebis DPS gear? I forgot what stats your recommended gear gives but as a tank I have survivor. So before I go for full dark reaver survivor, I need to know...isn't DPS hearing known as skank tanking?

 

Would your setup for a tank in ranked be that much better than full absorb tank gear? If any other sin tank that used to PvP in full tank gear switched to DPS gear and tested it out, pls let me know how the survivability is compared to full tank gear.

 

Don't want to sound like a doubter Krea but a few months ago someone told me to go full tank or go home.

 

You're going to be using tank armorings, but high endurance dps enhancements/mosd. This will put you at the HP of a full min/maxed tank in tanking stats, 54k (min/maxed tanking gear is actually 56k, so not far off), while also allowing you to put out a multitude of damage.

 

As far as skank tanking, no, this isn't skank tanking. Skank tanking is using tank gear and tank stance while in a DPS Discipline. This is using tank armorings/high endurance dps mods, while in the Tank Discipline, which is perfectly fine and fair. Matchmaking will recognize you as a tank and not a dps.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Jinre_the_Jedi