Assassin dps guide (deception)

[Darkstar]

The deception assassin is a melee class doing heavy damage from behind the target. They use a combination of force and saber attacks, having willpower as the main stat. The max range is a mere 10 meters (with the exception of a recklessness educed force lightning).

I am writing this between classes so will update and clean up later. This is in response to the lack of deception dps guides on the forum.

First a word on gear.

I list all Columni or T2 because that is the best “farmable” gear. You can attempt to obtain most of this daily, while Rakata is limited to once a week. With Rakata the concept is the same, the diminishing returns are the same, so gear accordingly.

Keep all your tier pieces/mods! They will be useful at some point!

Your base stats (for DPS only) are (and these may vary very slightly depending on datacrons):

Accuracy - 90% basic, 100% special
Critical chance - 5%
Critical multiplier - 50%
Willpower - 260ish (every 100 willpower gives .78% crit, and 20 bonus damage)
Forcepower - 0 (around 23 per 100)

Totaling up all the stats from the complete Columni set (head to toe from vendor) you get the following stats:
(values are approximate)
384 accuracy (+11.3%)
200 power (+46 damage)
226 critical chance (+8.6%)
96 surge (+13.8%)
0 alacrity
1210 force power (+277.88 force damage)
1169 willpower (+9.1% crit, 233.8 damage)

Giving now:

Accuracy - 101.3% basic, 11.3% special
Critical chance - 13.8%
Critical multiplier - 63.8%
Willpower - 1429 (11.1% crit, 285.8 damage)

Due to diminishing returns, you want roughly the following stats:

250 accuracy (+8.0%)
Infinite power
425 critical chance (+14.2%)
150 surge rating (+18%)
0 alacrity
Infinte force power
Infinate willpower

As you can see, there is way too much accuracy on the set, and as such you need to move 134 of that into critical chance. You can do so easily by swapping 2 accuracy/power enhancements for 2 critical/surge enhancements (by buying a different tier piece and removing the correct mod), giving you:

288 accuracy (+8.8%)
132 power (+30 damage)
294 critical chance (+10.8%)
192 surge (+20%)
0 alacrity
1210 force power (+277.88 force damage)
1169 willpower (+9.1% crit, 233.8 damage)

This is a bit better, still too much accuracy and now too much surge, but overall closer to most efficient.



With the new setup you should have the following stats:

MELEE
Bonus Damage: 233.8 + 30 + (21 from strength base stat) = 284.8
Accuracy: 98.8/108.8
Critical chance: 7.88 + 10.8 + 9.1 + (.84 from strength) = 28.62
Critical Multiplier: 50 + 20 = 70

FORCE
Bonus Damage: 233.8 + 30 + 277.88 = 514.68
Accuracy: 108.8
Critical chance: 7.88 + 10.8 + 9.1 = 27.78
Critical Multiplier: 50 + 20 = 70
Force regen rate: 8
Activation speed: 0


You can see the chart I am using and you take a minute to verify that the chart is accurate, which I have. The numbers on there are constant with what I see on my character chart.

D/R data


Now a word on spec.

I have tried other “hybrid” specs as well as madness, and am firm that this is the best spec. There is only a slim amount of wiggle room with the last few points:

Base Spec

This leaves 8 points extra, but this is the most essential part. From here you have 2 options, either beef up shock or beef up discharge.

With shock you gain a 45% chance for shock to do 50% more damage, 2% reduced damage, and +9% crit chance to melee for 10 secs when you crit with force attacks

Shock

With discharge you gain +9% armor pen, reduced cool down on force speed, and 9% increased discharge damage.

Discharge


Shock will hit harder in this then discharge, so it becomes a matter of 9% armor pen always, or 9% crit sometimes. Really they are both viable.



A word of rotation.

The simple rotation is:
Voltaic strike x2 - this will give you 2 things, a 30% increase to shock damage, and a 50% reduced cost
Shock - this no matter the spec will hit very hard
Discharge/maul - use maul first if the proc is there (duplicity) otherwise use discharge

Repeat this until the end of the fight
Be sure to only use shock and maul when the full proc is up, as they are very expensive to cast otherwise

Cooldowns:
Blackout is not just used for CC, it gives you a 10 second window of +50% force regen (dark embrace!
Recklessness gives a boost to crit chance for 3 attacks
Overcharge saber gives a boost to discharge damage
Adrenals give major boost to damage for a short time, critical chance one gives about 8% crit for 15 secs
Relics give another major boost to damage (roughly +4% crit and +6% surge for 220 to each relic)

To open the fight, be in stealth. Upon breaking stealth you get dark embrace for 10 secs. After that is over use ALL remaining Cds (none use GCD and can be hit at once)!! This will give you a massive burst right at the beginning. So for 15 secs or so you are at max dps. After that, vanish! This will not only drop the massive threat you gained, but give another dark embrace! So for the first 45 secs or so, you are doing maximum dps.

During the fight, every single min that blackout or vanish is up, use it! I choose to use recklessness and overcharge saber ever 2 mins instead of 1.5 to use them along with blackout. I use my adrenals and relics along the same pattern.

One note on blackout and vanish, try not to use these at high force, that is use them when your force is nearly gone. Using either at high force is a waste.

Saber strike is only to be used at a time when you have no force. Try not to use it more then once, or at most twice in a row. It is better however to use it then to stand still casting nothing!!

I am not covering all other situational Cds atm, but as a class with good raid utility it is a good idea to locate and use your inturrupts, stuns, taunts, defensive Cds etc. I am also not here for crew skills but I do recommend biochem.


Currently my stats are:

277 acc (+8.68%)
442 crit (+14.59%)
198 srg (+21.15%)

for a total of:

98.68% acc
29.55% crit
71.15% srg

this is with no buffs, not even self buff
this is also with a mix of rakata, crafted, etc

[CaseyTheRetard]

This guide is riddled with factual errors and logical inaccuracies. It would behoove you to finish writing the guide before you post it, and get some community feedback to correct the problems.

[Darkstar]

Perhaps you could fill this poor soul in, or are you not apart of the community I am supposed to be gaining feedback?
(BTW you sound super cool in your message. This guide is riddled with factual errors and logical inaccuracies? sweet man!)

[Lolth]

(03-02-2012 05:59 AM)Darkstar Wrote:  Perhaps you could fill this poor soul in, or are you not apart of the community I am supposed to be gaining feedback?
(BTW you sound super cool in your message. This guide is riddled with factual errors and logical inaccuracies? sweet man!)

It's not bad but does need some tweaks keep at it sir .+P

[Kaedis]

The quality of this guide is unbecoming of the standards of this forum. I'm locking this and archiving it. If you wish to write a quality guide/compendium for Deception, or any other spec, please PM me first with a draft copy of your guide for direct feedback. I will then forward you to posting it in our RFC/Incoming Guides section for community review/polishing, and only then will the guide be moved to the appropriate section and stickied.