SWTOR Mechanics Forums

Figured I'd give it a try, was heavily influenced by the ones on here, any feedback would be appreciated

Sith Assassin Deception Breakdown

I.) Talent Specialization, Abilities and Rotation

A.) Talents (see talents here)

1.) Darkness
Thrashing Blades = Mandatory
Lightning Reflexes = Optional
Charge Mastery = Recommended
Shroud of Darkness = Not Recommended
Lightning Recovery = Not Recommended
Swelling Charge = Not Recommended
Electric Execution = Optional

2.) Madness
Torment = Recommended
Calcify = Optional
Will of the Sith = Mandatory
Explosive Strikes = Optional
Sith Efficacy = Optional
Chain Shock = Optional
Parasitism = Not Recommended
Oppressing Force = Not Recommended

3.) Deception
Dark Embrace = Mandatory
Duplicity = Highly Recommended
Static Cling = Optional
Obfuscation = Mandatory
Recirculation = Optional
Energize = Optional
Charged Strikes = Mandatory
Surging Charge = Mandatory
Darkswell = Mandatory
Deceptive Power = Mandatory
Entropic Field = Optional
Saber Conduit = Highly Recommended
Fade = Mandatory
Avoidance = Optional
Resourcefulness = Highly Recommended
Static Charges = Mandatory
Low Slash = Mandatory
Crackling Blasts = Mandatory
Voltaic Slash = Mandatory
 
B.) Skills and Rotations (see skills here)

1.) Inquisitor skills
Force Lightning- upgradable, but not to the point where you can eliminate the cooldown. Can add up to 6% damage and critical chance if you choose.
Shock- heavy hitting range ability. Can reduce the force cost by 30% (2 stacks max) with a use of thrash or voltaic slash. Can add 15% damage (2 stacks max with each use of voltaic slash). Can reach chain shock, but with only a 45% chance and the limited force, there are talents that are more use.
Overload- Good to use when surrounded, outside of that not much use.
Electrocute- Good crowd control with a manageable force cost
Trash- Solid attack that can have the damage upgraded (6%), cost reduced (2 total) and can lower the cost of your next shock by 30%
Whirlwind- Another good crowd control, replaces Electrocute
Recklessness- Adds 60% to your force critical chance, so it should be used before you perform a shock, especially if you maxed out crackling blasts (+50% critical damage)
Unbreakable Will- Use as needed only
Crushing Darkness- More of a sorcerer ability due to there being no upgrades and a very high force cost.
Sprint- Out of combat ability
Channel the Force- In combat self-heal over time, use as needed
Force speed- Gap closer, use as needed
Jolt- Interupt, use as needed
Force Slow- Pretty low force cost, could be a decent utility against stronger foes
Cloud Mind- Lowers threat, use as needed
Sacrifice- Sacrifices companion to heal you, use as needed

2.) Assassin skills
Discharge- High damage ability, especially combined with the maximum 5 static charges and crackling blasts (+50% critical damage). Not sure if this is considered melee or a force attack.
Dark Charge- Tanking ability
Guard- Tanking ability
Lightning Charge- First DPS charge. Adds more consistent damage, but lower than the Surging charge. Discharge does sustained damage not burst.
Maul- Alpha Strike ability, almost needs to be done while in stealth since it has to be behind your target. With Duplicity, you can reduce the force cost to a more manageable 25 force and you can bypass 50% of enemy armor (an extra 9% with charge mastery).
Mind Control- Tanking ability
Assassin's Training- Adds an additional 25% damage to shock per rank as well as 5 endurance per rank.
Mind Trap- Very high force cost, but keeps a target from detecting you until you are ready or if you wish to avoid him completely in a tight space
Blackout- Most important part of this ability is it grants Dark Embrace which adds 10% damage and +50% force regen for 4 seconds. Definitely want to spam this ability, so the -15 seconds to the cooldown from Darkswell is a must
Deflection- Adds defense with no force cost so there’s no reason not to spam this ability. With the Lightning reflexes talent, it should add even more force regen to you as well.
Lacerate- Good AoA ability that you can add 6% damage to with Thrashing blades
Force Shroud- use as needed
Force Pull- gap closer use as needed. also adds a lot of threat, so use at own risk.
Overcharge Saber- Increases damage dealt by saber charges for 15 seconds, and with a force cost of only 10, means this is a spamable move.

C.) Rotations

1.) Non-Combat abilities

a.) Either Lightning or Surging charge should be active at all times. If you activate discharge, you should as soon as possible activate another charge.
b.) Overload adds an extra 10% to all saber charges for 15 seconds (has a 2 minute cooldown that can be reduced by 30 seconds).
c.) Blackout can be used every 45 seconds with the help of Darkswell and it’s worth it due to +10% damage and +50% force regen
d.) Reclessness is a must as well, since it lasts for 20s and makes it highly likely that your 2 strongest attacks (Shock and Discharge with the +50% crit) go critical

2.) Combat abilities

a.) If you have an “Exploit weakness” you should open every fight with a “Maul” done from stealth since that adds 10% damage and will allow you to get behind your target.
b.) Depending on the level of your enemy, “Low Slash” may be quite usefull because of it’s 4 second stun. Depending on how many other mobs surround your target, you may use this opportunity to give them a longer stun, like Electrocute.
c.) Your next priority should likely be to activate “Shock,” but at a reduced cost. “Thrash” reduces it’s base cost by 25%, so that should be your next attack.
d.) You should likely follow this with “Voltaic Slash” which further reduces “Shock” by 25% (total of 50%) and adds 15% damage.
e.) Finally you are ready for “Shock.” At this point it should cost between 17-23 focus as opposed to 45.
f.) Depending on how many Static Charges you have (maximum of 5) you may want to activate a “discharge” to add more damage.

---

Hi there,
Thanks for the post, I thought about doing one myself.

In a pure PVE environment, what cycle do you suggest?
It seems oubvious that we should use Surging Charge and it seems impossible force wise to do Charge switching (to DoT our target with Lighting Charge's Discharge).
I was thinking that our dps cycle should be somehting like:
Discharge (12s CD) > Voltaic Slash > Voltaic Slash > Shock > Maul > Voltaic Slash > Voltaic Slash > Shock > Discharge

Black-out to be use on every CD and finger crossed for Surging strike tick to regain 10 force.

I like charge mastery (depend of our % of physical damage) and Explosive Strike.

Quote:Charge Mastery = Recommended

Would make it mandatory. On Squishy targets it doesn't really improve much, but if you are fighting a tank, or someone with heavier gear, like Sentinel, it will be very useful to have some armor penetration.

Quote:Explosive Strikes = Optional

Trash, Lacerate, Voltaic slash and low slash are heavily boosted by this talent. I would make it mandatory and not optional.
EDIT: Forgot Maul lol.

Quote:Obfuscation = Mandatory

Why is this mandatory? It just increases your speed and stealth level, in PvP it's nice, but in PvE there is no need for this. I would rather take the next one:

Quote:Recirculation = Optional

Discharge will probably be our highest hitting/(critting) attack, and with crackling blasts boosting it's Critical damage a lot, a 3 seconds shorter cooldown is mandatory.

Edit:

Old info. Deleted.

That teaches me to not write my replies in Notepad first. *grumble* I've noticed that there have been replies since I started writing mine for the second time, so I'll probably edit in responses at the bottom.

A good first look at Deception, swtorfan84! I've not looked into Deception much yet, being distracted by Darkness, but I'll give my opinions below. My post is from an endgame PvE/raiding (operations) perspective. I have inferred from your recommended and mandatory skills that you would use a build such as this one, with a point spare for somewhere.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]1.) Darkness
Thrashing Blades = Mandatory
Lightning Reflexes = Optional
Charge Mastery = Recommended
Shroud of Darkness = Not Recommended
Lightning Recovery = Not Recommended
Swelling Charge = Not Recommended
Electric Execution = Optional

Mandatory for Thrashing Blades might be a bit strong, as I'll discuss a bit lower. Lightning Reflexes is almost certainly not very useful, as in a raid you won't be parrying or deflecting.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]2.) Madness
Torment = Recommended
Calcify = Optional
Will of the Sith = Mandatory
Explosive Strikes = Optional
Sith Efficacy = Optional
Chain Shock = Optional
Parasitism = Not Recommended
Oppressing Force = Not Recommended

I am not that much of a fan of Torment for Deception, as the major saving of it is Shock, which is already reduced by 60% from Charged Strikes, and there may be better places to put it...

...like Exploitive Strikes (which is what I assume you meant by 'Explosive Strikes'). This will give you an incredibly frequent (if not nigh-permanent) 9% critical chance on melee attacks, which makes it mandatory.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]B.) Skills and Rotations (see skills here)

Sennin very kindly reproduced this on our own forum, in the Sith Inquisitor Abilities Base + Both AC's thread.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]Force Lightning- upgradable, but not to the point where you can eliminate the cooldown. Can add up to 6% damage and critical chance if you choose.

I don't think you're being quite ruthless enough here! Force Lightning is almost worthless for an Assassin due to its high force cost and inability to acquire the buffs to it in the Lightning tree. This goes double if specialising in Deception.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]Shock- heavy hitting range ability. Can reduce the force cost by 30% (2 stacks max) with a use of thrash or voltaic slash. Can add 15% damage (2 stacks max with each use of voltaic slash). Can reach chain shock, but with only a 45% chance and the limited force, there are talents that are more use.

Limited force is not a problem for Shock, given that we will be using it every time we have two charges from Charged Strikes and Voltatic slash anyway.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]Whirlwind- Another good crowd control, replaces Electrocute

What do you mean by 'replaces Electrocute'? They are different abilities with different situational uses - Electrocute is instant and 4s, whilst Whirlwind has 2s Activation, lasts 8s and can be broken by damage.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]Maul- Alpha Strike ability, almost needs to be done while in stealth since it has to be behind your target. With Duplicity, you can reduce the force cost to a more manageable 25 force and you can bypass 50% of enemy armor (an extra 9% with charge mastery).

In a raid (or in other situations, if the target is stunned), you will almost always be behind the enemy, so Maul won't need to be just from stealth.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]Deflection- Adds defense with no force cost so there’s no reason not to spam this ability. With the Lightning reflexes talent, it should add even more force regen to you as well.

Deflection most likely incurs a GCD, which is reason enough not to spam it, let alone that it should be saved for when potentially useful. Plus, I doubt any Deception Assassin will have Lightning Reflexes.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]Force Pull- gap closer use as needed. also adds a lot of threat, so use at own risk.

Given that Force Pull moves the target, not the Assassin, this must be used very carefully to ensure that you don't disrupt the raid.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]Overcharge Saber- Increases damage dealt by saber charges for 15 seconds, and with a force cost of only 10, means this is a spamable move.

A cooldown of 90s means that spammable for Overcharge Saber is a bit of wishful thinking, alas!

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]a.) Either Lightning or Surging charge should be active at all times. If you activate discharge, you should as soon as possible activate another charge.

Given the 6 skill points sunk into it and the massive buffs, only Surging Charge should ever be used. I'm not entirely sure if Discharge does wipe the current charge, as it doesn't claim that it does, and would make it a ludicrously expensive ability.

(08-30-2011 10:33 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]b.) Overload adds an extra 10% to all saber charges for 15 seconds (has a 2 minute cooldown that can be reduced by 30 seconds).

I am assuming you mean Overcharge Saber.

For reference, the build I would most likely use is this one. The major changes is that it lacks Torment and Thrashing Blades, but gains Exploitive Strikes and Chain Shock 2/3. The reasoning is that Torment's force cost savings won't be as important as 9% crit chance from Exploitive Strikes, and that a 6% damage increase on Thrash and Voltaic Slash will be less than a 15% damage increase on base Shock damage (30% * 50%), due to how powerful Shock seems to be. If that's not the case, then Chain Shock should be swapped for Thrashing Blades, resulting in this build.

The suggested priority order is as follows:


You will note that Thrash is absent from this list. This is because both Thrash and Voltaic Slash have the same force cost, and neither has a cooldown (that we know of). As they both cost 25 (or 23 for Thrash with the Torment skill), it is never worth using Thrash, as Voltaic Slash is always superior.

Discharge should only be used with at least 1 charge, Shock with both sets of 2 charges and Maul when Exploit Weakness is procced. If any of the above 3 conditions are not met / attacks are not available, use Voltaic Slash. If there is insufficient force to do any of the above in the proper order, use Saber Swing.

Assuming that you'll also use them when you have the appropriate temporarty raid buffs up, if any, Blackout, Overcharge Saber and Recklessness should be used carefully.

Ideally, Blackout should be used immediately prior to a situation in which you can use a Surging Discharge with several charges, followed immediately by a Shock. Also ideally, Recklessness should be used prior to Blackout, as well, due to the longer duration of Recklessness. If Blackout does not itself trigger the GCD, then ideally you want to have an Exploit Weakness proc as well, but with a 45s cooldown when skilled, the effort of seeking all of them may not be worth it.

Overcharge Saber should be used every cooldown when you are not also in the middle of making use of Recklessness or Blackout, as well as taking raid buffs into account.

(08-30-2011 06:29 PM)Draeveus Wrote: [ -> ]Charge Mastery grants 9% armor ignore. Great, but how much this actually increases our dps is uncertain. Our melee attacks (Thrash, Lacerate, Maul, Saber Strike, and Voltaic Slash) will benefit from this, but Shock and Discharge will most likely not.

I am assuming from WoW that many bosses will have a reasonable chunk of Armour, so 9% reduction on this for these attacks will be quite a lot. This could be completely wrong, however, and we'll just have to wait to find out.

(08-30-2011 06:29 PM)Draeveus Wrote: [ -> ]Exploitive Strikes adds 9% melee crit after a Force crit. Shock, and I'm guessing Discharge, are the only viable force attacks in Deception's arsenal. With Shock on a 6sec CD and Discharge on a 12sec CD(talented) this should be up nearly 100% of the time. However, we've seen in the past that Critical and Force Critical might be separate entities. If this is the case, and your Force crit chance is too low, this might not be the powerhouse talent it appears to be. (Could use clarification on this issue if anyone knows?)

I believe that all of the critical chances are calculated differently (although they may share some of the same bonuses), but as our Willpower improves our force critical chance, it will still be pretty high.

(08-30-2011 06:29 PM)Draeveus Wrote: [ -> ]Oh, and don't get me started on what a shitty regen talent Saber Conduit is. 30% proc chance on an ability that itself only procs 25% of the time!? And then with a 10 second lockout? Really Bioware? They had better fix this before launch as it terribad right now. The only reason to get this is because it is a prerequisite for Static Charges, a great talent.

I think they were afraid of giving us too much regeneration, but the restrictions on this do seem a little extreme.

(08-30-2011 06:29 PM)Draeveus Wrote: [ -> ]Basically open with Maul, then Discharge and Shock on CD, making sure to VS at least twice between each Shock, filling gaps with Maul(only on duplicity), or Saber Strike if you are low on force.

I'd be tempted inclined to open with VS, and only use Maul when the proc is available, for the simple reason that Maul's base cost of 50 is far too high to use when Exploit Weakness is not available. The opener, with Dark Embrace, may be an exception, but I'd still use VS a couple of times first to see if we can proc it before using Maul. So, open with a VS, then use Maul if proc is available. If not, use VS again, and then follow with two Mauls regardless.

If the proc is available, use Maul, then use VS again to see if we can proc, then Maul again regardless.

First I wanted to say something about Surging Strike procc.
Yes, it's only 25%, it isn't as high as Dark Charge, but keep in mind we will use Voltaic Slash A LOT, and Voltaic Slash strikes the target 2x.
Which gives us a 50% chance for it to apply (if it works like this). Also, it says attacks, not just melee attacks, it might aswell crit on Shock.

As for Saber Conduit, it's pretty bad. A 10 force regen only once every 10 seconds IF we are lucky. If Surging Charge doesn't apply to the target, no 30% chance for regeneration. So It can take like 10 seconds before it will proc again, so 10 force every 20 seconds for 3 talent points is crap.
Too bad we need it for Static Charges :/

As for Maul, we will probably only use it every 10 seconds when the proc is up, or as opener/after using blackout. But for the use of Blackout I would probably use Fully loaded Shock (2x VS) and Fully Static Charged Discharge (5x static charge). The only thing i'm concerned about here is if Blackout uses a GCD, I think it does NOT because otherwise we only have 2.5 seconds of more damage after using it -_-. Incase it does not use a GCD, at 0.0 => Discharge , 1.5 => Shock, 3.0 => Maul. You can switch Discharge and Shock around, depending on ur rotation.

(08-30-2011 08:59 PM)Piree Wrote: [ -> ]First I wanted to say something about Surging Strike procc.
Yes, it's only 25%, it isn't as high as Dark Charge, but keep in mind we will use Voltaic Slash A LOT, and Voltaic Slash strikes the target 2x.
Which gives us a 50% chance for it to apply (if it works like this). Also, it says attacks, not just melee attacks, it might aswell crit on Shock.

As for Saber Conduit, it's pretty bad. A 10 force regen only once every 10 seconds IF we are lucky. If Surging Charge doesn't apply to the target, no 30% chance for regeneration. So It can take like 10 seconds before it will proc again, so 10 force every 20 seconds for 3 talent points is crap.
Too bad we need it for Static Charges :/

I don't think it will proc on force attacks, as the point of Saber Charges is that they affect our lightsaber (melee) strikes.

If we assume we get off 3x VS, 1x Maul and 2x Shock in 10s, we have 7 * 15% chances to proc Saber Conduit every 10s. This means it's pretty likely, but not certain, making it amount to a whopping +1fps regeneration at best. That is 9% increase force regeneration, 3% per skill point, which is better than nothing. As you say, though, it need not proc immediately, which could make it more like 0.5fps, which gives us a fantastic 1.5% force regeneration per skill point. Compared to Blood of Sith, which is 10% regeneration per skill point, it looks pretty lacking.

That said, Deception does gain -60% force cost on Shock and -50% cost on Maul for almost all uses, so it's not entirely fair to compare based on force regeneration alone. The skill could definitely do with something to make it more exciting, though, beyond the fact that it's a pre-requisite for Static Charges.

(08-30-2011 08:59 PM)Piree Wrote: [ -> ]As for Maul, we will probably only use it every 10 seconds when the proc is up, or as opener/after using blackout. But for the use of Blackout I would probably use Fully loaded Shock (2x VS) and Fully Static Charged Discharge (5x static charge). The only thing i'm concerned about here is if Blackout uses a GCD, I think it does NOT because otherwise we only have 2.5 seconds of more damage after using it -_-. Incase it does not use a GCD, at 0.0 => Discharge , 1.5 => Shock, 3.0 => Maul. You can switch Discharge and Shock around, depending on ur rotation.

I actually wrote that very thing in my first draft (including GCD commentary), but I'm not sure if it's reasonable to put that into a standard rotation, and is only worth it if you know that there is another big buff you can combine it with coming soon.

Assuming a rotation as below, it will take at least 18s to build up to this, which seems a bit excessive given the 12s cooldown of Discharge. This also assumes that we can afford to use all of the VS uses below, as most likely, some will need to be switched to SS, which won't generate as much chance of proccing Surging Charge.


That said, such a rotation every Blackout cooldown is quite delicious, if just for the big numbers. How about this as a standard opener and rotation, with every VS swapped for SS if there is insufficient force, and an SS put in before any Shock/Maul if there is insufficient force (done hastily, so please correct me):

Opener:

Normal Rotation:

There's a little more to it in the first if in the normal rotation, based on whether you can afford to fit in a Maul or not before it's needed for Blackout, but I think it's mostly solid. Note that this is a full rotation, unlike my previous post which contained a priority order, and assumed that we weren't going for 5 charge SD.

Hmm. I'm going to write a more sophisticated if structure for this, and post again.

Yes all three are off the GCD, here is the reference, taken from the datamines list:

Ability: Blackout
--- Description: Increases your stealth level by 15 for 8 seconds. Only useable in stealth mode.
--- CastingTime: 0
--- Cooldown: 60
--- RessourceCost: 0
--- MinRange: 0
--- MaxRange: 0
--- Ranks: 1
--- IsChanneled: False
--- Triggers GCD: False


Ability: Overcharge Saber
--- Description: Overcharges your current saber charge for 15 seconds, increasing the damage dealt by Lightning and Surging Charge by 100% and the healing done by Dark Charge by 300%.
--- CastingTime: 0
--- Cooldown: 120
--- RessourceCost: 10
--- MinRange: 0
--- MaxRange: 0
--- Ranks: 1
--- IsChanneled: False
--- Triggers GCD: False


Ability: Recklessness
--- Description: Grants 2 charges of Recklessness, which increases the force critical chance of your direct attacks and heals by 60%. Each time a direct force ability crits, you lose 1 charge. Lasts 20 seconds.
--- CastingTime: 0
--- Cooldown: 90
--- RessourceCost: 0
--- MinRange: 0
--- MaxRange: 0
--- Ranks: 1

(08-30-2011 06:17 PM)Malicious Wrote: [ -> ]Hi there,
Thanks for the post, I thought about doing one myself.

In a pure PVE environment, what cycle do you suggest?
It seems oubvious that we should use Surging Charge and it seems impossible force wise to do Charge switching (to DoT our target with Lighting Charge's Discharge).
I was thinking that our dps cycle should be somehting like:
Discharge (12s CD) > Voltaic Slash > Voltaic Slash > Shock > Maul > Voltaic Slash > Voltaic Slash > Shock > Discharge

Black-out to be use on every CD and finger crossed for Surging strike tick to regain 10 force.

I like charge mastery (depend of our % of physical damage) and Explosive Strike.

Honestly, w/o playing the game I don't know how feasibile it is to discharge and then activate another charge. Would have to see the force regen rate myself.

Also, Maul has to be done from behind the opponent, so once you get aggro, you can't.

---

(08-30-2011 06:21 PM)Piree Wrote: [ -> ]Would make it mandatory. On Squishy targets it doesn't really improve much, but if you are fighting a tank, or someone with heavier gear, like Sentinel, it will be very useful to have some armor penetration.

Definately thought about it

(08-30-2011 06:21 PM)Piree Wrote: [ -> ]Trash, Lacerate, Voltaic slash and low slash are heavily boosted by this talent. I would make it mandatory and not optional.
EDIT: Forgot Maul lol.

I guess my thing is, Shock is the only force attack that would activate this, and it is only used sparingly. Seems to me that it would activate very rarely. Again, not sure if discharge is considered melee or not.

(08-30-2011 06:21 PM)Piree Wrote: [ -> ]Why is this mandatory? It just increases your speed and stealth level, in PvP it's nice, but in PvE there is no need for this. I would rather take the next one:

I imagine that a w/o this talent you'll need blackout to have any chance to sneak up on a mob. Remember Devs have said that stealth isn't as powerful in this game as WoW/

(08-30-2011 06:21 PM)Piree Wrote: [ -> ]Discharge will probably be our highest hitting/(critting) attack, and with crackling blasts boosting it's Critical damage a lot, a 3 seconds shorter cooldown is mandatory.

I guess my thinking is 3 secs isn't alot. And after you discharge, will you have enough force to activate another charge/discharge in 12 secs (w/ the cooldown)? You likely wouldn't have built up very many static charges to increase the damage dealt my your discharges.

(08-31-2011 01:20 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-30-2011 06:21 PM)Piree Wrote: [ -> ]Trash, Lacerate, Voltaic slash and low slash are heavily boosted by this talent. I would make it mandatory and not optional.
EDIT: Forgot Maul lol.

I guess my thing is, Shock is the only force attack that would activate this, and it is only used sparingly. Seems to me that it would activate very rarely. Again, not sure if discharge is considered melee or not.

I don't know if Discharge will count, or if Surging Charges also count.
But as it's up 15 seconds, and we cast 2 Shocks every 15 seconds, and 1 more 3 seconds after. Having a +9% crit chance on almost ALL of your attacks, is pretty nice. Even if we only get to activate it twice (30 seconds) every minute, which I think is low. It will still give us a +- 5% permanent crit chance for only 3 points.

(08-31-2011 01:20 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-30-2011 06:21 PM)Piree Wrote: [ -> ]Why is this mandatory? It just increases your speed and stealth level, in PvP it's nice, but in PvE there is no need for this. I would rather take the next one:

I imagine that a w/o this talent you'll need blackout to have any chance to sneak up on a mob. Remember Devs have said that stealth isn't as powerful in this game as WoW/

Well, I suppose you wont be the first person to attack the boss if you are a DPSer, so the boss will be focusing on your Tank (hopefully), and with Force Speed, you are in no time behind the boss.

I would say this talent is Optional or Recommended, but not mandatory. Although I don't see much where you can put the 2 points except for the +armor, maybe if the bosses have a lot of AoE melee it's better to take this.

(08-31-2011 01:20 AM)swtorfan84 Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-30-2011 06:21 PM)Piree Wrote: [ -> ]Discharge will probably be our highest hitting/(critting) attack, and with crackling blasts boosting it's Critical damage a lot, a 3 seconds shorter cooldown is mandatory.

I guess my thinking is 3 secs isn't alot. And after you discharge, will you have enough force to activate another charge/discharge in 12 secs (w/ the cooldown)? You likely wouldn't have built up very many static charges to increase the damage dealt my your discharges.

I wanted to calculate the DPS difference it would give, but got exams and cba to do any maths now. But there arent really many good talents at the lower tiers to get.