4.0 Assassin feedback

[Aetideus]

What do you mean? Guardians still have ****tons of health and I can't remember the last guardian that wanted to kite me..

 

Sure, combined after Krea's advice with 3 Reck charges utility. Reck + Dis + Telpt + Dis + (Ball/ Maul/ some comb). Too speedy after the opener.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Aetideus

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Sure, combined after Krea's advice with 3 Reck charges utility. Reck + Dis + Telpt + Dis + Ball (Maul / some comb). Too speedy after the opener.

 

You are correct in that I do advise you to take the 3rd Recklessness charge, however, I strongly do not advise using Phantom Stride solely for the purpose of building 3 stacks of Static Charges. The cost of mobility is just not worth the marginal burst you'd gain, there are better uses for Phantom Stride.

 

Such as teleporting to a healer to interrupt a cast that you'd normally be unable to interrupt, or teleporting to a team mate being tunneled to throw a grenade on multiple enemies (not teleport directly to the team mate so much as teleport to one of his aggressors).

 

You just lose too much if you aim to use your mobility ability as anything other than it's intended use.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Jinre_the_Jedi

[Evolixe]

I don't really think the 3rd reckcharge utility is worth taking for PvP.

 

There's better ways to spend that point imo. You'll end up wasting it on PB/BL second hit most of the time anyway.

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

I don't really think the 3rd reckcharge utility is worth taking for PvP.

 

There's better ways to spend that point imo. You'll end up wasting it on PB/BL second hit most of the time anyway.

 

Well regardless of how minor, it's the only utility in that tier that gives a direct damage increase. Not only that, but the fact that it also synergizes with the utility for the knockback root is just a bonus.

 

Not at home to check, but off the top of my head, the only other utility that would be taken in that tier would be either the Force Shroud increase or the 50% speed boost, and each has it's uses so there's no set in stone "right" answer.

[Aelanis]

I don't really think the 3rd reckcharge utility is worth taking for PvP.

 

There's better ways to spend that point imo. You'll end up wasting it on PB/BL second hit most of the time anyway.

 

^

 

Unless you get incredibly lucky, there's a rather good chance you blow one on a Twin Surge. But you can also get horribly unlucky and get crits only on Twin Surge, and then you just cry.

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

It can be agitating to lose a charge to twin surge, I wish they'd change the mechanic so that if the first hit Crits, twin surge would also crit. Until then, it's a pain. Regardless, the CD reduction on Overload is still useful, and even if the charge does go into twin surge, it's still extra damage which is the goal of Deception anyway, apart from it's control.

 

I do acknowledge there are other choices however, in the guide I've compiled a short list of possibilities for Deception since there's more than one viable option.

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

On a side note, it looks like given the amount of critical % chance we get through gear, it has helped us slightly in terms of not wasting any more recklessness charges. Compared to 3.X era at least.

 

Wonder if this mean that they'll never consider just making it an auto crit now due to the new crit and surge mechanics?

Edited October 25, 2015 by Jinre_the_Jedi

[Aelanis]

On a side note, it looks like given the amount of critical % chance we get through gear, it has helped us slightly in terms of not wasting any more recklessness charges. Compared to 3.X era at least.

 

Wonder if this mean that they'll never consider just making it an auto crit now due to the new crit and surge mechanics?

 

If so, we'd probably lose most, if not all, of our surge bonus on Discharge and Ball Lightning, as well as on Death Field.

[Aetideus]

On a side note, it looks like given the amount of critical % chance we get through gear, it has helped us slightly in terms of not wasting any more recklessness charges. Compared to 3.X era at least.

 

Wonder if this mean that they'll never consider just making it an auto crit now due to the new crit and surge mechanics?

 

Even if the 3rd charge is consumed by Twin Charge, isn't it 17k in total (minus armor)? Dis + Maul + Bal would be ~42 (48)k having 40% gear crit and 60% Reck.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Aetideus

[Mumbai_]

As far as Deflection immunity goes, to me it's not worth it. I would rather take Instalift or Root break on Phantom Stride,

 

Yeah Ive been going with instalift instead of Deflection immunity. I feel like a root beak on Phantom could be useful but there haven't been enough times when it would've been helpful to me as opposed to instalift which really comes in handy quite often. What about the slow on thrash? I've been running that as well, a lot of Hatred abilities are 30m but that added slow has been pretty useful keeping people in range for melee and to help kite melee classes

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Yeah Ive been going with instalift instead of Deflection immunity. I feel like a root beak on Phantom could be useful but there haven't been enough times when it would've been helpful to me as opposed to instalift which really comes in handy quite often. What about the slow on thrash? I've been running that as well, a lot of Hatred abilities are 30m but that added slow has been pretty useful keeping people in range for melee and to help kite melee classes

 

I'm really liking the slow on our filler, it has close to 100% uptime and is decent for such a low tier utility

[Mumbai_]

Yeah I'm surprised they put the slow on the first tier and the speed boost on the second. Maybe the speed boost is more useful for Deception. But I look forward to reading your updated guide and seeing you in ranked this season.

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Yeah I'm surprised they put the slow on the first tier and the speed boost on the second. Maybe the speed boost is more useful for Deception. But I look forward to reading your updated guide and seeing you in ranked this season.

 

Unfortunately the start of the season will also mean the NA release of Blade and Soul, so I'll be playing that instead of swtor :s

[Mumbai_]

Unfortunately the start of the season will also mean the NA release of Blade and Soul, so I'll be playing that instead of swtor :s

 

Laaaame. But that frees up a top 3 slot for me to fill on the other hand.

[Jinre_the_Jedi]

Laaaame. But that frees up a top 3 slot for me to fill on the other hand.

 

Take em all!

[djcetra]

Unfortunately the start of the season will also mean the NA release of Blade and Soul, so I'll be playing that instead of swtor :s

 

Take em all!

 

Amen.

Edited October 25, 2015 by djcetra

[djcetra]

You are correct in that I do advise you to take the 3rd Recklessness charge, however, I strongly do not advise using Phantom Stride solely for the purpose of building 3 stacks of Static Charges. The cost of mobility is just not worth the marginal burst you'd gain, there are better uses for Phantom Stride.

 

Such as teleporting to a healer to interrupt a cast that you'd normally be unable to interrupt, or teleporting to a team mate being tunneled to throw a grenade on multiple enemies (not teleport directly to the team mate so much as teleport to one of his aggressors).

 

You just lose too much if you aim to use your mobility ability as anything other than it's intended use.

 

There's no right or wrong answer to this but personally I use Phantom for another 3 stack of Static quite a bit depending on situation. While I agree to your point in saying it's very valuable to utility the extra burst it provides is also quite essential to Deception IMO.

 

I also use Deflection more often then Insta WW as they're often broken by dots or moron team mates. However in ranked fours when actually played, Insta ww can be quite useful.

[Mumbai_]

There's no right or wrong answer to this but personally I use Phantom for another 3 stack of Static quite a bit depending on situation. While I agree to your point in saying it's very valuable to utility the extra burst it provides is also quite essential to Deception IMO.

 

I also use Deflection more often then Insta WW as they're often broken by dots or moron team mates. However in ranked fours when actually played, Insta ww can be quite useful.

 

The problem I have here is really with the Deception spec. You can use your useful mobility ability to add to your burst which still will underperform compared to the other burst specs. Hell from my experience after 4.0 even Hatred seems to burst harder than Decep, so I really don't see the point in playing Decep right now, which is a shame because its my favorite spec.

[RodneyMcNeely]

The problem I have here is really with the Deception spec. You can use your useful mobility ability to add to your burst which still will underperform compared to the other burst specs. Hell from my experience after 4.0 even Hatred seems to burst harder than Decep, so I really don't see the point in playing Decep right now, which is a shame because its my favorite spec.

I'm with you on that. Infiltration is the most "martial artsy" feeling of all the specs (IMHO) which is why it's my favorite. But it's a PAIN to run a spec that's designed to be a burst machine, only to have a healer blow through everything you're putting out.

 

If it wasn't for Serenity's overwhelming vulnerability to Concealment Operatives, I'd run it in a heartbeat. I used Serenity for most of 3.0 and beyond because you could put serious pressure on even a decent healer. But Serenity has always felt like more like a Sage with a few melee attacks and the idea of having to kite with a melee fighter just GALLS me. But then again, the mobility nerf isn't as noticeable in this spec, either.

 

I'm seriously thinking about running Kinetic Combat in DPS gear like Kre'a suggested. I like the in-your-face nature of KC, but I don't think I'll be killing any healer with enough neurons to form a synapse, even tricked out in high Mastery-Crit-Power gear.

 

Devs, why you so mean to Infiltration/Deception?

 

:confused:

[Aetideus]

I'm with you on that. Infiltration is the most "martial artsy" feeling of all the specs (IMHO) which is why it's my favorite. But it's a PAIN to run a spec that's designed to be a burst machine, only to have a healer blow through everything you're putting out.

 

Usually dot specs is a preference (2.8 madness assin was great) but hatred is tedious. Madness sorc should be enough.

(grasping the opportunity of noting that the other op spec ap pt has no procs).

Edited October 26, 2015 by Aetideus

[LudhaninRolgge]

its my favorite spec.

 

That's a good enough reason if you ask me

[Mumbai_]

That's a good enough reason if you ask me

 

Eh for regs and maybe PvE but ranked requires something better. For myself and also for my team - wouldn't want to be that guy who drags other people's ratings down.

[djcetra]

The problem I have here is really with the Deception spec. You can use your useful mobility ability to add to your burst which still will underperform compared to the other burst specs. Hell from my experience after 4.0 even Hatred seems to burst harder than Decep, so I really don't see the point in playing Decep right now, which is a shame because its my favorite spec.

 

I agree sorta. Overall I think Deception should have much more burst, I'd say on the level of PT burst is where it should be. I still run Deception because I can't stand Hatred combat, it's really not too enjoyable at all and they're squishy as hell. I'm noticing a handful of people claim Hatred burst is almost on par with Deception, this I do not agree with at all and feel is quite a stretch. However, the damage of Hatred is very good on multiple targets. Deception is in my opinion vastly superior to Hatred when it comes to 1v1 combat and it's utiltiy is king. The problem with this is that most players play extremely foolishly in both WZ and Solo Ranked arena's grouping up together allowing hatred sins to be absurdly viable. If people would stop stacking on top of each other like plebs, Hatred would have a much more difficult time. In Team Ranked 4v4 which really nobody cares about, Hatred plays a far better role unfortunately because of the ability to play cleave setups which leaves Deception out of question

 

For me personally, I don't understand the interest in playing Hatred at all. There's already a far superior class for that 'type' of gameplay and it's called Madness Sorc. Great Deception Sins still find their place in Solo Ranked and Regs, so that's what I will play 90% of the time I'm on my Sin. I do have little interest in playing Sin tank since the damage seems to be quite good for that role and it may be fun, I might give it a spin. When I want to spread dots I get on my Sage or Sorc.

 

Anyway, TL;DR Deception isn't piss poor but it's definitely lacking. Bring it's burst up to the level of PT and give it some sort of mediocre self-heal on damage like Hatred and it would be amazing once again.

 

Eh for regs and maybe PvE but ranked requires something better. For myself and also for my team - wouldn't want to be that guy who drags other people's ratings down.

 

You're only going to drag people's rating down if you bother with 4v4 Team Ranked, Deception is still good in Solo IMO, plenty of people to catch off-guard. Deception only really starts to lack when you're fighting more organized Meta comps.

Edited October 26, 2015 by djcetra

[Mumbai_]

I agree sorta. Overall I think Deception should have much more burst, I'd say on the level of PT burst is where it should be.

 

Deception is in my opinion vastly superior to Hatred when it comes to 1v1 combat and it's utiltiy is king.

 

Eh, PT burst is insane, but its downside is that it's extremely predictable and pretty easy to avoid. I think if Decep had that level of burst it'd be pretty op because it'd be much harder to avoid.

 

And as far as 1v1, I would've agreed with you in 3.x, however after playing Hatred a lot after 4.0 I disagree. I'm finding it to be pretty easy to 1v1 people as Hatred, including 1v1ing Decep sins which previously would've been insanely difficult, which also helps fuel my belief that Hatred now has a superior burst as well. Just last night a Decep managed to get to a health before I could stop him so it was a fully healed Decep vs me with half my health and I still killed him. I'm not saying one example proves anything; I'm just saying these are the kinds of experiences I'm having playing Hatred, and it's going very well. Side note: it feels really good when you've got a lot of their health down and then you stealth out and watch your opponent panic as your dots drain the last of his health, before popping back in with a spike and executing him. Especially if it appeared to be a really close fight.

 

For me personally, I don't understand the interest in playing Hatred at all. There's already a far superior class for that 'type' of gameplay and it's called Madness Sorc.

 

I guess I just see Madness and Hatred as two very different play styles. I have both but I prefer Hatred far over Madness. Obviously they both DoT spread but that isn't a lot to have in common. And I don't see Madness as being superior either. To be fair I do prefer the play style of Decep to Hatred, but only if it's viable. I just don't see it being viable at the moment.

 

Great Deception Sins still find their place in Solo Ranked and Regs, so that's what I will play 90% of the time I'm on my Sin. I do have little interest in playing Sin tank since the damage seems to be quite good for that role and it may be fun, I might give it a spin. When I want to spread dots I get on my Sage or Sorc.

 

It'll be interesting to see what this season holds. Right now I still see plenty of people rocking Deception, but I'll be interested to see if that's the case in a few months, and what all the top Shadows/Sins will be spec'ed as. I agree with you about the tanking though, it's been a long time since I've done that, but I've been doing some PvE tanking with Darkness and it's definitely feeling pretty nice. I might have to get a PvP tank set.

Edited October 27, 2015 by Mumbai_

[PolleyMcRocket]

So, what gear is recommended for Kinetic Combat Tank Shadow for PvP, solo and ranked? Is the Tank gear from the vendor's not good? Or is it just about DPS gear? What stats should i focus? Edited October 28, 2015 by PolleyMcRocket