canceled my account the other day. Was really underwhelmed by the patch, and pissed at the nerfs. Would consider coming back to finish up the republic stories, but I highly doubt it.

It's true they will stop healing u if an enemy is CCed. They also sometimes just plain stop in the middle of a fight regardless of which abilities you have activated. Maybe it would be better to give them a mana bar or whatever, so you know when they are going to stop healing. Overall, the AI of companions is terrible.

I'm glad you guys are constantly adding new content, but without at improved LFG tool, alot of people can't experience it. If and when do you plan on adding some type of LFG tool? I'd be happy with just a global channel so I can search for groups while doing my dailys.

when he kills you on the ship, after a wipe, it doesn't count against your durability. But yes, it happened to me + no credit for the kill...got all the bugs at the same time... I don't think I have been in a FP or Op that hasn't been bugged. Not to mention crashing while in a fp will kill you when you log back in...

with Talos, and dark charge, you should be able to handle any mob your level or lower easily. 2 levels above you, and you should still be fine. I didn't read all the posts, so you didn't say what spec you are. But as a madness assassin, once I got creeping terror, life got easier. now at 50, i have 16k hp, and I can run through anything, and that's using lightning charge. I don't think Assassins are too squishy, they just take a long time to develop. They also have harder rotations, compared to say a BH, who spams tracer missle everywhere.

you aren't using creeping terror? the 31 skill point ability? That's kinda silly, as its really important. The more dots you have on a target, the greater chance you have for force crits that improve your melee crit by 9%. Also, its better to use your instant dots before CD, so they can be doing damage while you cast, since CD has a 2 sec cast time. Well that's my 2 cents, and here is my rotation, for group bosses..when i solo i cast electrocute before CD, to prevent interrupting. Death field Discharge creeping terror CD Shock Thrash saber slash (or whatever the free ability is) then i repeat them, using instant CD whenever possible.

It works well for madness too, as its aoe heal goes well with our heals we get from dot crits

I love my madness assassin. I don't pvp, but in PvE it works great. I can pretty much roll over everything. I had trouble leveling at first, but once you get all your skills, and your healer, its easy. I don't know how my dps stacks against others, because I don't know what kind of numbers they are seeing. But I will say my highest crit is about 3300 for what its worth. My build is 10/0/31. There isn't much reason to go into deception, perhaps pvp changes that, but maul is one of the worst skills out there(for a madness build), and stealth isn't really used.

but the key is knowing that its all still worthless. I REd stuff (lvl 49) to purple, and the stats are just horrible, compared to easily obtained drops and vendors.

I use it against melee, if I want to stay away from them...because of the slow effect. For instance, use force slow + force speed...get away, use recklessness + force lighnting...when the get close I run and use my instants and dots. I use it mostly as a junk skill, and because I like the animation.

I like my madness assassin build. And yes, the heals add up, especially with dark charge and overcharge saber, ive seen heals over 300. As for which is better in pve, there are many fights where bosses have knock back, or you are at low health, and being in melee range can be dangerous. Being Madness gives you the ability to step back and cast...also your dots are doing damage while you are moving around. So far my biggest crit is 3200. Not sure what others see.

yes..there are lots of points out there..unless you are a SI, which has problems gettinging DS points. But a few hundred points here or there won't influence what level you end up at.

As for rotation, I can only go by my rotation for elites. Since you are fighting other players I would open with electrocute (its 30m), death field, creeping terror..(all 30m talents that are instant, and you can use them while running towards your target) If you are fighting melee...you can then pop recklessness..and force lightning..that will slow his movement speed as he tries to close the gap (if you keep it 8-10 meters they can not use force leap) When he reaches you, use whirlwind, shock, discharge..lower their accuracy..then thrash away..using CD proc if you get it...you can also use force slow + force speed to get away..then pop your instant attacks and try to keep them at range. For fighting ranged attackers, you want to skip force lighting, get in melee range, then use shock, discharge, thrash, CD procs, then rinse and repeat, death field, creeping, etc... don't forget your damage reduction ability if you need it

I like Talos. I use a madness build, but the heals truely are a life saver. Talos is probably the easist to gain affection, as so far he is the only one I have that is at max 10k. His biggest thing is archeology, and studying things, so as long as you sound interested in those things, he will light up like a christmas tree. Once you get to 50, there is a daily on belsavis that will yield about 800 affection everytime you run it. Also with talos, since he stands out of the fight, gearing him is less a priority, then gearing a tank. Not to mention tanks will stand in AoE, and the casters will not. Also Ashara is not as "good" as she seems. I don't know if it just takes her a while, but I have killed plenty of innocent people, and she has liked the outcome. She just doesn't like the torturing parts..and you can't talk bad about the jedi. I can't get xelek to say anything or react to anything, so I just give him gifts.

I don't like either, but then again, I play from a PvE perspective. But here is what is wrong with your builds: Madness Assassins usually don't open with stealth, so there is no point to putting any points in the deception tree. Also, you will probably use dark charge, not lightning charge. You don't even get surging charge unless you are deception. you are much better off putting points in the darkness tree to increase thrash (your primary melee attack) your dots and charges and your health...I think if you really wanted survivability, you would put points in damage reduction, and periodic damage reduction, both can be found in the madness tree. If I was doing pvp, this is what my build would be: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200zcZZfrfRrrkrfz.1 You could take the points out of oppressing force, but I think the shorter cooldown on your primary stun would be a handy thing to have...now if fights don't last that long, then put the extra points in the darkness tree. By comparison, this is my current pve build: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#200Mf0cZZcMfRrMkrfz.1