Personally speaking, I ONLY pvp. I have tried most of the cookie cutter specs out there, 23/1/17, 0/31/10,10/0/31, and variations thereof. I've tried to mad maul and I have to say from a pvp perspective, i love it. Creeping terror is not a bad dot by any means, however in the heat of the moment, I find that casting 3 dots plus death field, plus shock, plus thrash is tiresome. While mad maul may not be as good on paper, or in a PVE environment, I find that cutting on a dout for a hard-hitting maul is quite fantastic. Death field, discharge, shock, thrash to proc, Crushing Darkness, and a stun to maul is great for killing just about anyone that's not in full WH. My point is that as far as "the best spec" should be changed "this is the best spec...for ME." If some ****** wants to split points between all 3 trees, and LIKES it...let him. If someone wants to be a dot caster with a double bladed light saber and stealth...let him. If someone wants to tank and be nuisance to the enemy team...let him. Lets stop arguing which is best, and come up with constructive comments about how we can maximize each spec. Also, learn to read, OS does not affect discharge, but if you are full deception its worth the cast time...as full deception in current gear, each saber proc of surge crits for ~550 damage, with OS that's 1k from a proc. I'm okay with that.

No, you are spreading your points too thin. You're trading some important abilities in our tank tree for nothing worth-while. You're going to want the armor and out of stealth spike, force pull is invaluable in huttball and peeling enemies (a tank's duty) as well as increased damage to shock...all for only 3 points. Drop deception and put all the points into darkness. Remove swelling and electric execution in favor of lightning reflexes and recovery. Dark charge doesn't do a whole hell of a lot of damage. Get premonition too, that's highly useful in pvp. Get Death field, fanatacism and haunting dreams. This is your standard 23/0/17 build for high utility, and solid damage.

Rancor, I retract my previous statement. The build you posted is actually quite nice. I finally broke down and bought a pvp dummy for my ship and did some testing. As it turns out, overcharge saber does not affect discharge. What it does do, however is turn my 500 charge crits into 1k charge crits, which was parsing very nicley lol.

Some guy posted that DF over VS buffed shock is worth it. no, bro no. Maybe it might do overall more damage if it hits more than one target in pvp, however 2k dmg across 3 people is nothing. VS for me crits most targets for 900-1000 per hit, netting ~1800-2k dmg per slash, and buffs the followup shock. Please keep in mind that shock is on a shorter CD than DF. If you run a 0/3x/1x build, you will be taking the 3/3 45% chance to add a second shock. Buffed with reck, 2x vs and shock is a larger single target damage on a single target. Deception is NOT an aoe spec, it is used for specific targeting of characters (healers and target switching). If you are looking at node guarding, deep deception is not the spec for you. If you are looking at 1v1 lolyourenotplayingpvpwarzonesright specs, deception might not be for you. If you are making measured, calculating choices on who you are attacking, and are able to choose wisely, deception is an amazing spec for bursting down specific targets. Anyone saying that 1x points in madness is better because of DF over a 3x build in deception is the probably the guy running around in BM/Recruit/onepiece of war hero that the rest of us GOOD players like to make into a prison *****.

In short, no they should not. Volactic slash synegizes with other key deception abilities. You actually wont see deception come into its own until you gear up a tad, i didnt see a huge return until i got more than halfway in war hero gear, however now that I'm rocking WH in most slots i can tell you that at least 31 points in deception (i have something like 0/33/13) its actually quite worth it. Remember that deception's key points is burst damage against a single target. Vol slash buffs shock in both reduction of cast cost, and damage. Coupled with a 2-3 charge discharge, overcharge saber, and reck, you will find that it is quite a decent attack. Against the average player VS hits for 900-1000 each, and should be used x 2 to get your buff. I tend to stealth>spike>vol slashx2, and putz around with saber strike once or twice until i get a maul proc. Low slash>maul>reck/overcharge>discharge>shock>assassinate and they're generally toast. The mark of a good player is one who adjusts their strategy depending on the class/person they are fighting. Deception makes a good subspec for 17 poitns to get 30% reduced aoe (make smash lolable), force regen, larger maul hits, and buffed blackout. Plain and simple: dont worry too much about the damage of an ability, they are all fairly well balanced around your gear. Worry more about what that ability does with the rest of your spec and how you intend to use it.