If you're going "ambush" dps, then Deception is a better spec for that. Madness is a dot spec, deception is burst. As for stats though: 1)Willpower is your main class stat. It gives you crit chance and damage. 2)Power is next. No cap on it really, it's free game. As much as you want 3)Crit and Surge go hand in hand. at 55, you should have 20% crit chance and 70% surge. 4) as for your power crystal, either crit or power. Both are good, just depends on what you need.

I don't agree with your post at all. I don't think assassins are easier to learn to play in pvp than sorcs in any way. Sorcs are turrets: they sit there and dish out the dps. Assassins can't start dpsing anyone anyone out of the blue. We're stealthers and as such, we have to strategically pick our targets and burst them down before anyone notices then stealth again. With a sorc, you sit there and dps and when you get a melee on you, you overload, electrocute, and force speed away to your buddies. The PvE portion of your post is somewhat accurate but you must remember that there are always exceptions to the rules. Anyone with skill and the right gear can be top dps in ops. End of story.

Both advanced classes are like that. Story wise, they both follow the inquisitor archetype completely. Only difference is in play style. One's a caster/healer and the other is a melee/tank.

I've played an inquisitor from launch. Took a break for a few long months and considered re-rolling when I came back but nothing else appealed to me after playing an inquisitor. I love it. I have a 55 assassin and im leveling a sorc as well. I'm a little disappointed with dps in PVE on my assassin in as such that we have to work so much harder and still be under some of the other classes in DPS. BUT, I deal with that and over come it because I love the class. Sorc is damn fun too. Who doesn't love being a turret? Imo, inquisitor is a great choice. Only thing you gotta decide is whether to go assassin or sorcerer.

What is this? a sentinel is QQing about not being able to kill a specific class? Get over it. Every class is supposed to have a counter. That's what makes pvp exactly that. Just because a class mechanic doesn't allow you to faceroll in pvp doesn't mean that a they should get nerfed or maras/sents should get buffed. You have charge, obliterate if you spec rage, your ravage/master strike immobilizes if you spec carnage, you have force camo, saber ward, endless rage, and the list goes on. You already have so much utility to close gaps and survive. Please, do not even talk about nerfing agents/smugglers because they are in a good spot right now. Maras/sents don't need a buff either. but rather you just need to learn your class. I'm an assassin. Any class when played well can be frustrating beyond belief but I know how to take them out because I know the ins and outs of my class. Do some research and maybe you can be a decent warrior.

I'm on the fence about biochem. I leveled biochem from launch. It was great before the nerf. It's still decent now. I like it because I get the reusable stims and adrenals, even though it's a little less than the usable ones. The mats sell pretty well. The medical grade injectors are 2k credits a pop on average on my server and the compounds and samples sell for around 175k per stack depending which ones they are. All in all, it makes pretty good cash. Would I rather have cybertech or artifice? Yes.

I find, for pvp, accuracy is less of a priority than the other stats. If it isn't on the pvp gear, I personally don't go out of my way to stack it. I would much rather itemize for power and surge while keeping my crit at 20% unbuffed. I find that's the sweet spot for deception. If accuracy is on the gear and i'm happy with my other stats, then I won't change it. Edit: I just noticed in that link that you're using the old Willpower Matrix Cube. My advise would be to get a power pvp relic instead, either the proc or activation relic, so you can swap out some stuff for crit. Even augmented, it's only 98 willpower. The expertise from a pvp relic would be more useful imo.

Your stats are fine as it is with the exception of your crit chance. 18.81% as deception, fully buffed, seems a bit low to me. I would swap a bit of your surge for crit. If you have a ton of surge with so little crit, it kind of makes it pointless to stack surge since you aren't critting as much (even with recklessness, it seems too low) 70% surge seems to be the average with 25% ish crit buffed.

Welcome back. First off, if you pay for a subscription, you get the expansion free. Quite worth it imo. Now into the assassin stuff. Darkness right now is decent, but no where near what it was. We still suffer from spike damage alot, even more so since they nerfed the armor from Dark Charge. But darkness is getting a huge buff in armor come 2.5 I would read up on the changes in the assassin forum for a complete list. No one knows for sure how good/bad the changes to darkness are going to be come 2.5 but it looks like we're going to be on par, give or take, with the other tanks. PvE, its going to be great. In PvP im assuming is going to be more effective as well.

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. I know assassin deeps blow right now but im striving to be that exception Just can't seem to let go to the ol' assassin and I don't want to be cornered into only tanking pve.

If i'm correct in assuming you're speccing dps, you gotta look at it like this: the extra armor will go towards melee/physical damage whereas the 2% dmg reduction is for ALL damage. I'm not sure what the 30% armor equates to but if you're squishy in pvp, get both if you can afford the points. For pve, I would say the 2% dmg reduction simply because the 30% increased armor scales. Since we wear light armor, our rating is going to be low regardless, making the 30% increased armor negligible. Again, i have not tested any of this; its just my opinion.

Go darkness for leveling but gear as dps. You get the utility, survivability, and AOE of darkness. Way less down time if you use a high dps comp like Ashara. I leveled to 55 from 50 as darkness in 2 days what that spec. easy mode, imo.

Noob question inc. How do I go about parsing my dps? Do i need to download a program or something? or is it just through a website?

Honestly, I use Xalek. He's the easiest to gear because i just put my obsolete gear on him. I run deception and Xalek and I smash through mobs quicker than I do with Ashara, probably because she's less geared but i'm not about to spend all my credits geared out a companion just for soloing. If you don't have Xalek yet, Khem is prob your best bet.

I don't think a shadowstep-type ability would make us over powered at all. Look at the other classes and how many stuns/snares/knock backs they have to create/close distance, depending on ranged or melee dps. All of our abilities to stun or snare can only be used in melee or a 10 meter range, and even then they don't work half the time. When you consider this with the fact that we rely on closing the gap with an opponent to be effective, I think it's quite fitting. I'm simply saying I don't think it would be over powered. Do we need it right now? I don't think so. The post above is spot on when he said trying to implement this would distract BW from the much needed attention that assassins require in different areas. Lacking a shadowstep is the least of our problems, IMO.