i think you have to read this build as an offensive tank spec. Basically you pick up all talents that increase damage and regen. That's why talent priority is probably the regen proc over the internal/elemental resistance. You can of course go all out defensive with a similar spec (shuffle some talents around) but then you'd go with defensive gear instead of offensive gear.

it's a flashpoint not a planet.

I'm curious how people think this stacks up to 23/0/18. I've tried slow time spec for a while after the patch hit and still prefer having FiB in my spec. Maybe i should try it again though.

i find that infiltration burst is significantly higher, but pressure seems higher with a hybrid kinetic build. Both have their merits. One thing i don't like about hybrid balance build is the ground casting aoe of FiB.

It currently only mitigates kinetic, energy and weapon damage, so it does nothing to stop other forms of damage.

So it seems we should focus on surge above a certain amount of crit %. Is there an amount of crit % where our surge rating starts to increase our damage more than crit % does? Is it around 25%+?

Tried: 2/31/8 31/0/10 23/0/18 10/0/31 The most powerful one currently seems to be 23/0/18, which is starting to seem like our cookiecutter hybrid pvp build. 2/31/8 is also nice, but since I'm undergeared for 50s warzones (little expertise, low crit/surge), I'm gonna stick it out with the hybrid build for a little longer.

shadow strike isn't on my skillbar unless i play an infil/upheaval build. With all the procs going on, i think using shadow strike is a bit underwhelming. I can imagine they want us to be in a certain position OR wait for a proc, but both at the same time is just an annoying mechanic for the damage it does. I kind of like positional abilities because of the effort/reward ratio, with all the ghosting in PvP going on after CCs at the moment though, its not as easy to pull off as it should be. Talking about annoying mechanics, juggling kinetic ward is another one. How about we make the kinetic ward talent a talent called improved combat technique: Your combat technique now increases your shield chance by 15% and get rid of kinetic ward altogether. It burns too quickly and we all know Vanguards get this out of the box with Ion Cell. Talking about comparisons to other tanks, even though you can't make them one on one. Why is the Vanguard's interrupt on an 8 second base cooldown and ours on a 12 second cooldown, basically forcing you to put points in the infiltration tree if you want to effectively harass healers? (although spinning kick is nice with kinetic spec). All in all it seems like some classes with similar roles as Shadow get base abilities we have to invest in with skill points. I suppose this is the price we pay for having 3 versatile skill trees. I don't think we need buffs specifically to damage or survivability though, just some stuff shuffled around to make the class as fun as it can be.

I agree that slow time, even with the damage buff and snare is not worth trading in the benefits of 18 points in balance. The only time i would find slow time remotely useful is when chasing people in voidstad after a door is blown, and occasionally when a teammate is running the huttball. So way too situational.

mine were naked 2 days before the patch.

Control is everything in pvp imo. You're giving up a lot of it for a marginal increase in regen and burst. I agree i could do without FiB or Force Strike, but i couldn't give up 3 control tools (being force pull, stasis, containment) for the dps increase.

What are your thoughts on 1.1 and the added aoe slow on Slow Time? Could be interesting for PvP?

Balance comes afterwards, stats should work properly first imo. Besides, as i'm seeing it right now, most pvp healers are inquisitors/sages and their shields mitigate all kinds of damage?

This thread is begging for an official response. If this is currently a flaw in the game, it should be adressed or at least investigated. If it's not, at least they could take people's worries away on the subject.